Sly Cooper: Viva La Carmelita
by Ye Oldest Cooper
Summary: Ever wondered what happened before Carmelita put on that badge? What was her life like? Find out all in this long (hopefully) prequel where we explore her life. Set before the Sly games. Hey, this is now a complete tale! Rated T because whilst in some places it is heavy, the overall feel of it is generally acceptable. Read and rate and enjoy Carmelita's adventures, thank you.
1. Prologue

_**Sly Cooper: Vida La Carmelita**_

Just as one could correctly foresee that the sky is blue, or trees produce oxygen (or any other fantastic benign facts that come to mind), it is undeniable that Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox is the greatest police detective currently employed by Interpol in the modern day. Known for her sterling athleticism on the field, her devotion to eternal mountains of paperwork and unfaltering aim with her Tesla shock pistol always un-holstered upon her hot and attractive thighs, every criminal is the word is fearful of her name…but some of them are tricky enough to catch her attention over and over again. It's only silly criminal types who try this of course, but one day, it will come to fruition I hope.

But whilst all you people know the tale of Sylvester James Cooper – orphan, master thief extraordinaire, charmer, lover, fighter all in one – very few are aware at all of the tale of Carmelita Montoya Fox – too an orphan, lover and fighter, but also a gymnastic master, marksman extraordinaire, surprisingly skilled baker and in depth liver of _la vida loca_.

Part of the reason why so few know about the young Inspectors days as a cub through to a cop is partly because of her steely cold heart, but it's mostly because her old file was destroyed and wiped in a recent fire at Interpol Headquarters AND if that hadn't have happened, the file would be blank as the lady was considered a genuine mystery. Even to her employers, she was the closest thing to a living enigma as was possible (Interpol keep most of the Confidential information buried so deep it would be nearly impossible to find, and they only ever call on it for dire emergencies, and thankfully for us, we haven't seen our beloved fox encounter one of those at all in her life)

There is one expert individual of our saucy Inspectors young days who is prepared to educate you on all of these events. That said expert is Inspector Fox herself, as we use our minds to bridge into hers and experience her experiences, go through with her Nuisances and habits of her life so far. So reader…you ready to find out how a hot little Latina made her way from hot and exotic Spain to not-so-hot and mildly classy France? How this orphan applied her skills in life to make herself her only family? Find out what her life was like before she ever earned the mantle of Inspector of Interpol?

Of course you do. So sit back, and open your head. Because Carmelita has a lot to show and tell you over her life so far…what's to come, she is yet to know. What has been is all we can comment on…


	2. Carmelita's Childhood

_**Sly Cooper: Vida La Carmelita**_

**Barcelona, Spain, 4th July 1980**

We are in the hospital, and Diego Fox of the Spanish police is looking over his beautiful pregnant bellied wife, Santana, as she lies in the maternity ward as she suddenly expects the contractions. These contractions didn't come for a while, but while they were waiting, the policeman turned to the Kangaroo midwife to get an idea of the events that he would be expecting.

"So how long does this procedure normally take for something like this?"

"Well Mr. Fox, with the amount of cubs your wife has, it'll depend. It will have to be a caesarean section for sure"

"Thank you Madam"

Diego Fox was a tall and attractive man, couldn't look anything near the age he actually was at all – he was 30, but his deep brown eyes showed a stern serious of a 50 year old along with the intelligence of a man of a similar age. Since the Spanish conversion to Democratic rule in the mid 70's, Diego had worked strongly with the police in making the conversion as safe as possible for the citizens: he'd said that he'd do anything for anyone who is a citizen of Spain. His wife, Santana, was a coffee shop owner, whom he would pop in and visit during his daily rounds. She too was 30 although she didn't look it, and she also had a deep intelligence behind her eyes like her eventual husbands. However, whilst his appeared to be animal instinct kind of intelligence and common sense, hers was clearly a sense for business and numbers, as the coffee shop was booming and did have quite a high profit turnover per annum despite being only a corner coffee shop and also living in a Spain where the economy was only just coming back into balance. Diego claimed on their first date he'd popped in just to try the special Santana Cappuccino – a hot coffee and milk frothed up well, and powdered with special orange chocolate gratings rather than the normal milk chocolate sprinkles, which she patterned and made famous throughout Barcelona. In reality however, Diego just wanted to see her face. Once they were married, it only took 9 months after that to get to this point – in the maternity ward expecting triplets.

Suddenly, the noise came – the noise of motherhood taking shape in the ward. Diego ran to the screen and pounded his hands upon the door, aching to get in, and see his wife, Santana screaming in agony upon the table, as the operation began to take shape. Diego was strong willed enough to stay and watch the three cubs be ripped from their mother's stomach…no matter how long the operation had to endure for. And it did take a long time, especially for the usual childbirth standards of time spent. During the screams and pain of Santana Fox, many other hopeful and happy parents came and went with healthy and bouncing babies of all species and sizes. And then, the glorious silence of Santana's screams: they were replaced with cries of a newborn set of fox triplet cubs – all happy, all healthy, all as gorgeous as Santana and Diego could've hope for, especially after the agonising 2 hour operation, all of which time both parents were awake and conscious. They looked down over the triplets, and they could see, there were two boys and a girl in this set. The Kangaroo midwife was the first to offer a hug to the newly made parents, which they eagerly took. Santana took her time to rest, finally taking the opportunity to look at her new born children. Diego sat with her, and they both smiled together.

"So what are we going to call them then?" She asked

"Whatever they're named, better be Spanish" Diego joked back.

The day after the birth – 1st of March – Diego and Santana made their way down to the registry office to get the birth certificates certified for use. The Aardvark across the table from them had an officious look across his whole demeanour. He wore a darkly clean suit, no element of hair or dust on any article of his clothing, and an entirely serious expression. He also had a surprisingly dead Spanish accent, with seemingly no flowing flourishes or accents on anything he said.

"Can I do much for you today?"

Diego was a man who seemed to like everyone he came into contact with, even criminals with their charismatic ways of making a life around themselves and creating an energy within the community – however negative. That was a world apart from this negative bore he was sat across from, and whom he disliked within too little reason. However, he was the man processing their sons and daughters birth documents so we may as well go ahead with it. Just then, the man noticed the pair's proper significance in society. The Aardvark slowly rose from his chair.

"You're Santana Fox. My, my wife and I really love your Latte's in that place; we pop in all the time for them. It really is a joy to meet you"

Santana looked slightly bewildered by this man's actions in praising her Latte's: after all, they were only ordinary; especially in comparison to the Cappuccinos that establishment had to offer. She politely voiced these wonders, but the only response she got back was one of a general dislike for Cappuccinos because of their frothiness. Diego in light of this decided to get the documentation done as soon as possible. He handed the Aardvark the forms, with each of the children's names on them, exchanging only the slightest smile as they handed the stuff in, and they get their jackets together as they leave the officious place and back to the hopeful joy and spontaneity of their normal lives.

**Barcelona, Spain, 15th November 1993**

The married couple of Diego and Santana remained a powerful force in the community in which they lived. Whilst crime and the economy were still on decline, but they did have a comfortable life with their now four children – the triplets were respectively called Paolo, Diego Jr. and Carmelita. The fourth was a good 4 years junior of the twins, and that was a 9 year old fox cub named Santiago, formed by a mix of the two parents names. Whilst the married Fox's loved each of their children the same, Santiago was their own little prodigy…and each of the older siblings understood and liked this. In particular, Santiago's only and older sister, Carmelita, would delve into his Maths homework with him – partly because it was only Maths she could fully understand, but mostly from sisterly love. Diego Jr. was definitely the more Mathematical of the siblings. Paolo was an ever improving karate student, and he and his sister would regularly practice their sports at a sun kissed field just on the edge of town: private, spacious with good conditions for gymnasts and judo fighters. So far in their 13 years of existence, the Fox triplets were closely knit, and everything was good for them…

Morning broke over the city of Barcelona, and Diego was immediately out of the door followed by his 3 children all on their way to the same local comprehensive.

In the back of the police interceptor, the shorter Carmelita sat in between her two big brothers, but each one grappling the other in one big 'bros' style hug. Diego always approved of that kinship. In terms of dress for the school day, Carmelita and Diego Jr. were dressed suitably to show of their attractive physical assets, with Carmelita wearing a T-shirt that was loose enough to leave something to the imagination yet also providing good grounds for this imagination, but also wearing jeans that hugged her rear, giving the appearance of a great blue apple with a giant orange tail. Diego Jr. likewise was wearing a pair of jeans that hugged his almost as desirable behind as his sisters, but unlike her, he was wearing a t-shirt a size too small for him, yet it was perfect to show off his highly sort-after 8-pac. In stark contrast, the more conservative Paolo was dressed in very long-sleeve, baggy jumper and trousers – not matching colours, as the bottom was black and the top was white with an intricate vortex pattern that swirled together into a hexagon that was brightly coloured and as aesthetically pleasing to look at as a Picasso drawing – but this never detracted from his overall good looks, as each of the male twins had deep blues eyes and short cropped blue hair, their sister had the same facial make-up roughly, but her hair was long and tied back and also blue. Carmelita was the first to speak, to Paolo

"Hey Pauly, you gonna get some equations done today or try and get started on some anatomy?" She asked teasingly

"Well, maybe I'll do both and convert speed into movement…" Paolo interjected.

"Wow Pauly, you seriously need to curb that nerd in you!" Diego Jr. was fast to interrupt "Papa wants grandkids some day, so me and you oughta make something of these years. Best give them a good like what we got" Diego Jr. said, slightly giving a nod to his namesake father.

"What about me" Carmelita interjected in turn.

"Well" began Paolo "Even if Dad would allow it, I can't imagine a guy insane enough to try and get under your skin Carm, eh? Besides, you're much too young for that stuff"

"Very good Paul" Their father finally interfered "You all should be staying well away from 'distractions' for the while. Unless they annoy you enough to make you want to practice your moves on them, then I'm fine with it" He smiled at the three. In truth, for their age he admired Paolo's dress-sense over the others. Obviously they stuck to their age group, but he never liked the idea of the risk, especially to Carmelita; his fears were silenced by the truth that Carmelita was as formidable lady, even at 13. Diego continued "Ah kids. You make me a proud parent. Watching my 3 first born, going out and making something of themselves, looking out for one another…if I was never to see you again, understand I'd be very pleased of you no matter what." The mood in the back suddenly got serious, as they looked at each other in confused terror.

The car pulled up outside the school, and Diego Jr. was the first to jump out. Instantly, he was snagged from his siblings attentions by two females walking up the school's front drive way. All these peacock ladies had to do was flutter their blooms a little bit, and he was immediately in-between the pair with his arms around them both. He looked behind him briefly, giving a quick wink to his dad and siblings, who chuckled bemused as he walked up the school drive. The school drive itself looked stripped down and able to sustain only a few flowers and articles of beauty at all, but it led up to a red-brick mansion-esque place with extra buildings sprouting forth from it like the head on a flower's stem – each of them red-brick like the main part of the place, but each look like a flower head in it's own way. Right above the front school gate, it said '_Toneleros Comunidad Academia_', in big blue letters with a picture of a one-eyed female raccoon emblazed within ever 'o' in the name. Maybe Carmelita would work out that face one day, or the story behind it.

As Diego Jr. walked into the school, Carmelita and Paolo stayed behind to briefly speak to their father.

"What was all that about maybe dying Dad?" said Paolo "Is it something we need to be made aware of?"

Diego took a deep breath, and held his son and daughter over the shoulder, with a look in his face that looked like he was burdened with certain clarity of a fate he was due to suffer. His eyes grew sadder as he explained, not caring about the many school kids walking around him and his family as he revealed their highly classified information.

"Well, me and your Mother are encountering some issues with money; it's only recent, but they are substantial. Anyway, to make some extra money, I took a job at the police undercover agency. They've placed me inside a gang called '_mano del Diablo'_, and if you've read the papers, then you know that this is a bad bunch of boys we are dealing with. There's no doubt that if I get busted something bad will happen, and it just came out in the car I really don't want that to happen because I love you, and your brothers and your mother, very much". He finished with a smile, and got back in the car, giving one final look to his befuddled kids, a look of acceptance nearly. Carmelita turned to Paolo.

"This is serious Pauly! Why'd Papa get into that arrangement? _Mano del Diablo_ – the Devil's Hand – is the most dangerous gang in all of Spain and South America"

"I heard that after a journalist over in La Paz wrote an article about their robbery of a bank where they failed to steal too much and mocked their mantle, one of the kingpins in that organisation broke into his house; beat the hell from the guy. Didn't kill him, just broke his wrists, his hands and each of his fingers and thumbs." Paolo solemnly cut in.

"And now Dad's in amongst their ranks."

The other two fox siblings simply walked into the school to see the day ahead of them.

**Barcelona, Spain, 15th November 1993 (later in the day)**

Carmelita sat down at the table, with Santana and her brothers gathered around the table. It was dinner time, but at the table the mood wasn't on a very high note. Paolo was sat with bandages over his hand, Diego Jr. with a large rip across his t-shirt revealing his physique nicely yet annoying him quite heavily for it, and surprisingly, it was Carmelita who looked OK – barely a scratch on her. Santana sat amongst her triplets, and had a stern look in her eye.

"OK kids. You are all 13. That's 4 years on Santiago over there; he's going to pick habits up from you guys! These are the ones I wish he'd stay away from – the ones that get you two, Carmelita and Diego, into fights. And Pauly, you've done well, but you got involved this time, and that ain't like you! I want an explanation from ALL of you NOW on what happened!" Santana literally looked as though she could shrivel into a husk with all the concentrated anger in her eyes. Paolo was the first to start.

"Well, I didn't want to: it's just Diego was getting beaten up by a bunch of boys so I knocked one out and beat another quite bad. I broke my hand, was sent to the nurse, and those boys didn't get too much of a go at me – I was interrupted by the Principle and he took me into isolation" He turned to Diego Jr. who was uncharacteristically quite for this time of day, who took over the story from a different period of time.

"And the reason I got into a fight is because some girls were angry at Carmelita for something, and they got their boyfriends involved. So four Armadillos were coming at Carm right, so I got involved and they instantly my back right, and I'm pleased to say the only things injured were my shirt and dignity…" His involvement in the story was cut by Santana's vicious glare. Finally, she turned to Carmelita, forcing her to explain.

Carmelita exhaled hard before she begun "Well, I was walking in the halls, and this girl knocked me, got mad in my face…and I slapped her…and she fainted from it…and she kinda fell on her stupid badger face" Carmelita had a small smile on her face. She never liked to admit it to her family, especially her parents, but she did find attacking and beating up unruly people who bother her state of mind incredibly satisfying. That smile was wiped by Santana, now standing and stalking around the table. She pointed to Santiago, the young little boy in the corner, working away hard with drawings in the corner – very articulate drawings of great buildings such as the Eiffel Tower, or the leaning Tower of Pisa, complete with mathematical calculations regarding their construction (With his naturally honed drawing abilities, combined with Paolo's teachings in Maths, Diego and Santiago had ambitions for him to become an Architect). Whilst pointing, Santana began her rant:

"This boy will be in your position in a few years time. Me and your father have high hopes for you all, and one of them is we want to see our three joint eldest children make a great man of your younger brother yet. Just remember that. And I don't care if you are all stressed out about what your father is doing – yes, he told me and I am fully aware of the risks he's entailing, as are you all surely – and the least you can all do is make my life easier by not doing dumb stuff like this" Rant over, she stopped. Diego Jr. lent over to his twins, almost bewildered. Carmelita nodded, and just said "_Mano del Diablo_: it's Dad's undercover job…"

Just then, the door was suddenly kicked open and a shot was fired. The triplets leaped to their feet, the chairs nearly falling over onto the floor with the speed they did jump to their feet. After the shot, all they'd seen was a sight that would haunt each of the children if they ever did live – their mother falling straight down to the floor, with a bullet hole in between her eyes, her face showered with blood. Behind her, four men appeared through the door – each of them of the same build, being tall and relatively skinny especially compared to the more athletic Fox teenagers, and each of their species was noticeable: Hyena, Tiger, Iguana and Wolf, each of them emblazed with an evil smile in their faces as they showed their teeth maliciously. Then they shone their guns at the children. Santiago started crying, and Paolo was around him to comfort him – even pushing in-front of him to protect him from any possible blast – whereas Carmelita shuffled herself towards the kitchen surface and reached for the knife Santana was just using, but Diego Jr. stood motionless…his siblings couldn't be sure if he was scared or just stuck in thought of a way out. As the men approached, the Tiger whacked out a camera and held it to his eyes, holding the record button while he did. The Hyena turned to him:

"What are you doing, you stupid boy?" The accents were identifiably Mexican – a region of South America, confirming the groups identify in principle as _Mano del Diablo_.

"You know it's my thing…for later. I always do it" The Tiger pleaded.

"ALWAYS?" The Wolf now interjecting "Does it have to be done for a simple shoot and kill job? Of a man's family?"

"Always" The Tiger confirmed "Enrico, you understand…"

"DON'T USE MY NAME ON THE JOB!" yelled the Iguana "And no, I don't understand your sick thing! Jeez. All we have to do is show that dirty poxy unreliable _Vato_ is what happens when he messes up royal. We shoot these kids like their mother, then leg it."

Carmelita, filled with a need to protect her family as the new woman of the house, leaped forth at the aptly titled camera-man with the knife, getting a good hard slice on his leg. The Tiger screamed in agony, nearly dropping the camera but he kept a hold of the footage he'd use for his past-time, leaving him open to some slices on his face that ran nice and deep and showed some blood coming from his face. He came in with a kick that forced Carmelita back into the corner. The Tiger screaming in agony turned to his colleagues.

"That witch! I'll strangle her…"

"Or we could shot them all like we're now about to" Enrico verbalised the illogical approach of Scarface, nee Camera-man. The Hyena, Wolf and Tiger nodded, and they loaded their weapons and took aim among the children; as they did, Paolo shielded the crying Santiago tightly to him, Diego Jr. shed a small tear and Carmelita tried to find a new way to get out of this. Nevertheless, the guns went off and bullets pierced all of their bodies as they fell to the floor, hard and into a pool of their own blood. The gang was quick out of the door, with the exception of Scarface who stood with his camera as he scanned the scene for articles of his pleasure…then he heard sirens and decided to scram.

Carmelita kept her eyes open, and turned her head to the carnage surrounding her person – all of her siblings were dead: Paolo was holding the brother he'd so lovingly tried to craft into a craftsman himself, said brother was dead, and Diego Jr. was left unable to do too much. But she could feel herself living, and she saw an escape route…she began with her remaining strength to pull herself towards the fallen phone on the floor, in spite of the bullets that pierced her lung and stomach. She made her way to the phone, and tried to dial the number of the emergency services…and that was the last retainable memory of the 15th of November in 1993 that she would have before she faded to unconsciousness…


	3. Carmelita's Teenage Years

_**Sly Cooper: Vida La Carmelita**_

**Vigo, Spain, 20th July 1996**

Carmelita's eyes opened up. It was just over two weeks since her 16th birthday and to her, this meant just one simple thing in her mind – adulthood. The beauty and greatness of her springing forth into this pinnacle point in her life was spoilt by one fierce realisation, and that was that Paolo and Diego Jr. weren't there to have it with her…and Diego and Santiago were there to congratulate them on it. Carmelita sprung forth from the unspringy mattress she always laid upon, with the pure black and empty bed-sheets almost as empty as her mind first thing in the morning. The mattress barely rippled, kind of like the fat on Carmelita's athletic body that stood firm and unmoving with the foundations of her comfort – her muscle and power – holding it steady. She without thinking too much threw on the original arrangements of her comfort, and she stood in the mirror that showed her from head-to-toe displayed in a glow and attraction equivalent only to the beautiful Goddess Venus of which she was most familiar due to that often cited parallel. Dressed in tight blue jeans, she'd thrown away that slightly more covered look of her days as a 13 year old prancing about the school of Barcelona in her youth; it was replaced by a bare-mid s-shirt that showed off the scars on her stomach. She stroked the scars softly, desperate to remember how she'd got them, but those three years of memory seemed distant and exotic to her to recall. She smiled grimly at this fact: the fact of blissful and ignorant peace.

She made her way down the stairs, pounding out an aggressive walking pattern until she reached the foot of the stairwell upon which she was calm again. Into the kitchen she walked, home to her aunt and step-uncle. The aunt, Suzanna, was one that Santana had spoken very little about: a psychologist who specialised with children, yet strangely decided never to have any children: the result of this was a house devoid of pictures of a strongly knit family unit, without too much quirk or charm or anything lively. It was just a clinical, drab looking place to live in. The drawings by Santiago of her youth were a reminder of her youngest sibling and her reflection was enough to remind her of her twins. This house however was the closest metaphor for Paolo she could find: clinical, clean, logical yet still full of love. ARGHH! ALL THESE THINGS IN HER HEAD, THEY BURN LIKE HOLY WATER! WHAT ARE THEY? WHY ARE THEY? Carmelita clutched her head every time she thought of it, screaming each time. Her uncle – an Aardvark called Aaron – had a grey face and expression, but whenever these regular occurrences of screaming happened, he always went red when it happened. He was immediately with his arms around her to pull her from her fit.

"Carmelita, come on!" His dull voice straining for emotions "It's OK: come to now, it's nice and quiet"

The rage left and she returned to the present, bright faced and pristine. She looked up to Suzanna and Aaron who were looking down upon her. Suzanna looked as if she had a whole lot to say but no words seemed to come from her – just a worried stare. Carmelita had something possibly to say.

"Thanks for that…ah my head! Damn migraines! Just another problem to zap into check when I get the chance"

"Carmelita…not all problems are solvable; many are just set-backs to your current good situation. Migraines are not something to be zapped. They are to be ignored because they stop you doing great gymnastics. Take it from someone who does paper working at the registry office everyday he's able to breathe and walk." Aaron cracked a brief smile "And about what you're wearing…why show those scars if you hate them?"

"To show people I'm not afraid of injuries." Her face was stern as she said this, her eyes blank and cold like the landscape of Antarctica "And because even if those dullards don't like it, most of them wouldn't know what to do".

She stood up and walked across the blank kitchen to the hat-stand, hoisting her favourite jacket – loose leather, black and flowing to just above her waist to show off the tiniest amount of fur between her jeans and her top. She turned back to them before departing to school that day. All she seemed to do was stare at the pair…stare with a kind of warmth contested by the cold nature the house seemed to instil in her. She turned on the spot and walked to the door with the stern and focused expression she was called with. She left the house on time for her bus, as Suzanna still continued to stay quiet until that door was closed; it wasn't too long before the verbal Bedlam unravelled itself with her house.

"Why'd you insist on still keeping her Aaron? This is why I didn't want kids, and you're already paying for your step kids an extravagant amount per annum! We should've just let someone else pick her up. Adopt her, and then we're all happy…"

"Suzie, PLEASE! The girl is hurting, always has been! I wouldn't be able to leave any of my nieces to live with a stranger. And she's not hurting – she just focuses on the wrong stuff for the moment"

"Aaron, darling…please, I'm a psychologist. A child one admittedly but she was only a child when she got those scars. I've got reasons to know why she may well not be quite right"

"She doesn't remember…"

"That's repression of those memories…when are we going to tell her?"

Aaron had to think a little bit all of a sudden "When the time is right I guess…when is right? That's an entirely different pool"

The school gates gleamed open…although when we think of gleam, we think of good metal and a nice bright day with great refracting of the light: this gate was much more of a dirty alloy that a far cry from '_Toneleros Comunidad Academia_', and that gleam was more grease on the metal that was in serious need of a clean. It leads up to a school that looks like something of The Haunted Mansion with broken windows and a look of something that could not always be so best to be a place for learning. If anything, as Carmelita was privy to the practice of violence, it was very much like a mental asylum as one nutcase would just be around the corner…just got to be ready for it.

Still, not everyone is bad. In fact, now, Carmelita can see some people very much worth her while approaching her as she makes it just beyond the front gates. Here were three guys that she'd gotten to know well over the year she'd lived in Vigo – the time that Aaron had a higher offer of work pay and move up the country. She barged into the group, made up respectively of a Cheetah, a Warthog and a Hippo. The gang all gave her a big 'bros' hug and handshake as soon as they saw her. They talked as they walked down the grotty drive to the even grottier school.

They crossed the front-door of the school building. The school corridors packed with bustling rapscallions and trouble-makers, with the good guys splattered sporadically within the mix.

"You know, Carmelita, you only do have a few months left is this _lugar infernal_. Give it just a bit of time." The Hippo said.

"I know Pinky. Still, this whole place – the order of it – gets to you after a while. Many schools in such a short space do that to a person…"

"Be serious. This place has barely made a scratch on your surface Carm. You'll leave here and make something of your life for certain" The Warthog, Tusks, was always hopeful for his friend that she could do well in life.

"Just need to pass the end of year exams eh then?" Carmelita smiled.

The bell ran, and Pinky branched away from the group to his class. The teacher held the door open for Tusks and Carmelita to join the eager-eyed class of hopeful intellect, sitting together right at the very back. Outside the door, the class heard a commotion…

Carmelita's cheetah friend was kneeling down, putting his sports bag into his locker down by his feet. Inside went a pair of sports shoes – elevated, with vented souls that also had foam in (excellent for long distant running practices) – and removing from it his work for the day; nothing too extraordinary, even by his own average life standards. Then he stood up, and he felt a warm chill on his neck…not comforting warmth, more fearful.

"Well…if it ain't old Fatboy! You can't run this time!" Behind him stood four guys – Tigers and one Liger, the latter being the one stood behind the Cheetah. Over the Cheetah, they looked big and imposing, like a thunder cloud over an oak tree that stands strong, but still can't compete. The Liger was an inch over 'Fatboy', and was enjoying this fact.

"Look Lone" The Cheetah said "I have no clue what you…or your friends…could possibly need from me this time, but I'm still not going for it."

"Look Crits: I get my way, sooner or later. Plus you're the fastest guy in the school, and would be ideal for it. Here's the deal" Lone said, cricking his shoulders as he spoke 'deal' with all the sliminess of a slug in mud "We need someone to get us some 'headway' in the custom cars business right. So we were thinking, you can get in, unlock everything, trash the place, then run before anyone sees! We'll play you a dime and a half for the work you'll do: that'll do nicely to your running career eh? Hahahahaha!"

"No deal Lone: I got everything I need now. Besides, you ain't gonna buy me into your little den for rag bands and morons! No offense meant to your buddies or anything like that, but you ain't gonna get as much as a Euro from me!"

"Ah but my buddies feel as I like…and I'm very jacked off!"

Crits pushed forward, but the 3 Tigers held him firm against the lockers, the clanging of body's against the metal caused the occupants of the classroom next to them to rush out to the commotion The teacher, Tusks and Carmelita looked on shocked: more shocked that Crits was being targeted by a gang he wanted nothing to do with, and had stayed that way. Lone snarled lowly and sinister

"You little sissy-faced, rollover piece filth! I'll strangle you!"

"_That little witch! I'll strangle her!" Carmelita's brain burned once more, like Holy Water. This Holy Water was showing the face of a Devil – a scarfaced crook, screaming and taunting in her face. And there were his three friends. These guys were not familiar to her. All she needed to see however was the face of Scarface. No, not this! Not another of my brothers again, she heard in her subconscious. Right for them…"_

Carmelita's eyes glowed with the anger of three years of suffering at the hands of her memories, however vague they appeared to be. The charge and attack of her aiding her friend took the teacher completely by surprise. Lone just had time to turn and see the feral fox pounding at his face. The Tiger friends took her underarm, but it had no effect, as her vicious attacks were too strong to be held back at all. Crits then had her, and she stopped: docile, in an OK frame of mind. The teacher and another member of the teaching staff – a Rhino who worked in the PE department. Lone was back on his feet, looking for his scarpering 'friends' as they belted down the corridors. Really, he thought to himself, as his friends who'd he'd thought against other street gangs with had left him. He stood, staring Carmelita down…and then a smile broke.

"Well, you're more of a man than your boyfriend ever would be" A sneer broke from the smiling lips "Maybe you'd like to take the job we were offering him?" Carmelita's reply was immediate, as despite her arms and body being held strongly, she delivered it via a kick.

Carmelita's next stop was in the headmasters office, with Aaron sat next to her, receiving the feedback of the inquiry into her behaviour carried out by the teaching staff, lead this Fat cat of a headmaster – he was a Tabby cat, and the lack of a tail or even a tale did provide him with a constant temper.

"Well Aaron buddy. The good news is Carmelita won't be blocked from the exams since they're only a week away, and despite his parent's fears, Lone is still completely functional downstairs and able to conceive. The bad news is that after these exams, you won't be able to enrol your child again at this school for her further education."

"What? For defending my friend? How comes that's the case?!" She protested.

"Listen Miss Fox. You're a bright lass: compassionate, friendly, good to the other kids with some exceptions such as the ones you keep hospitalising – by the way on that, a beefy brutish moronic kid is still not worthy of a broken coccyx…no matter how repugnant he be. But you aren't going to make it in further education doing that! We want a calmer Carmelita if possible. That'll be all Miss Fox and Aaron".

Carmelita stood up and pointed her arm out to him, full of accusations to protest.

"Sir…if they deserved it in your mind, why…"

"Because Carmelita, it's obvious the two things you want to become. You talk of them all the time: Olympics Gymnast or a Policewoman. If you go too far with one of these idiots, those dreams are gone, and I care more for your dreams than some stupid teenage dirtbag who allows his hands to invade the lands they best stay away from. Better find another school, and try not to kill anyone." The Cat was almost humoured by his own 'joke'. He just sat quiet, while Carmelita felt the solid death stare of Aaron.

The door slammed hard, as the lecture began:

"When I said to you to find a hobby or an occupation, this wasn't AT ALL what I had in mind!" Aaron dulled Spanish only had a way of sounding like an angry computer, not quite the intimidation he had in mind "He was right you know – your Headmaster. You can't go busting up these guys just because they're offensive in your vicinity"

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm telling you to stop beating the hell out of punks like that just because of whatever's in your head right now!"

"Then tell me something I'd need to do!"

Aaron paused, taking a seat and the kitchen table. He placed a box on the table, taking the lid off, and revealing the contents of it. He sat down opposite his little niece, and handed out a certificate: it was her birth certificate. He knew that the box also contained the rest of her family's death certificates, but kept them hidden for their irrelevancy to the current discussion.

"I took your birth certificate when I met my late sister-in-law, and her husband. Needless to say, we got off on the wrong foot. It was during my first marriage, just to give you an idea of time ago it was. It was a profession I fell into because I craved then what you do now: order. It pays nicely, you'll get a stable working situation…and you'll be deal with what dealt with over the years. It'll do you well and you'll get money for it."

Carmelita was immediately receptive of the offer "So you're offering me a full time job then? Working for Registry Office of Spain? But I thought you wanted me…"

"To get the fullest education you could? Well that wasn't quite working out."

"What about my final exams? If I do well that is?"

"Then this will served you in even better stead afterwards"

A knock came from the door. Aaron stood to get it, and walked hastily to it, intending to finish this meeting at the door quickly so he could continue this discussion. It was over pretty quickly.

"Carm, it's that boy Crits to see you!"

Her body leaped from the seat upon which she was sat and ran to Crits, standing casual and care-free at the front door to the family's detached quiet little house within a quiet little neighbourhood. There Crits the Cheetah stood, with his running shoes in the bag under his shoulder, that also contained the trophy he'd won in the race he'd ran after school, despite the confrontation with Lone and his gang.

"You know, there's only one thing more embarrassing than being defended by a girl…and that's getting the hell beat out of you by a girl. I didn't get a chance to thank you today. This is it"

"Today? It's still evening Crits; that always counts in my books" Carmelita said as she engaged his charming smile with one just as charming of her own. "You know I'm not allowed back into the school for the rest of this year or the next. Got a back-up plan however if I can't get in elsewhere."

"I heard. I'll miss you if you're not there. I'll get to see Pinky and Tusks on a regular basis, but I guess I'll just miss what you bring to the group"

"And that is?"

"…Someone who breaks some jerks coccyx every month at least I guess"

The pair looked into each others eyes for what felt like an eternity…

Then the silence broke: "Do you want some coffee; seems a bit of a waste for you to come down here for not very much other than a need to thank me for saving your bony butt"

Crits smiled…then followed her into the house.

**Vigo, Spain, 25th August 1996**

The gates of the school beckoned for the very last time for Carmelita. Her and Crits hadn't spoken for while a few weeks now, not because of any recent distain for one another, but because he'd become focused even harder on his running now while she had been sorting paperwork with Aaron to start her employment at the Registry Office in a months time. Tusks and Pinky had remained close to her however, which is good because she had needed their help for the exams she was taking. They liked to make this fact public knowledge, but only the same way Diego Jr. would make his sportive and stud mannerisms clear to all.

Carmelita ripped open the envelope that contained her life-changing results…all perfect, just like she hoped. Pinky and Tusks patted their hands on her shoulders. Crits approached slowly and quietly to her, with a shy smile on his face. Carmelita looked around to Pinky and Tusks.

"Well guys. It was a great journey, but here it ends" She said, sounding faintly sentimental.

"No Carm. You're about to start your journey. This was just the packing stage" Tusks could always find the best way to get a smile out of a situation such as this one.

"Besides, this school's unlucky to loose you" Pink added.

Crits still stayed quiet.

The gang of four left the school gates, content with their results. A roar then filled the air – the roar of a car engine. The four looked up to see a fully revved-up Ford Mustang, V8 with great gusto in its sound. The car had the roof down, and the driver – Lone – stood in the drivers place: he looked like the sadistic Roman Emperor waiting to give opinion on the soldiers who fought for their lives in the ring. It was easy to tell which way his thumb was going to go.

"Miss Fox, no-one has ever touched me like you did. Whatcha say I take you to Pleasure-Town and back. And maybe Crits over there can join…for ballast!"

"Here's a better idea: why don't I plough that car right through your backside and out your nose!"

"Feisty, ain't ya?"

Lone dropped down into the drivers' seat – the engine roaring like a hungry wild animal. The three Tiger buddies of his were around him like cackling hyenas waiting for the kill. Carmelita readied herself for a run, as did Crits. Pinky and Tusks had the idea to feel around the floor behind them, looking for useful projectile objects. Some large stones will do. Lone took the handbrake off and thus…the car pounced forwards.

"Run, you feisty little pig – RUN!"

Crits and Carmelita ran down the road, at a pounding rate of knots. Pinky and Tusks were following slightly behind them – their more bulked frames making keeping ahead of the hungry car a little bit trickier than it was for the more slim and streamlined Crits and Carmelita. Pinky and Tusks turned sharply; the stones – despite their sounded shape – flew like arrowheads straight the windscreen of the car, in a hopeful effort to slow down the approaching monster. Damage was caused to the windscreen of the car, as Lone noticed a crack appear within the windscreen. This was replaceable damage however…unlike the kind he was preparing to commit on the creatures in his sight. This road seemed to go on forever without traffic or people – plenty of lifeless houses on the left and right of them, but nothing to help. As they turned the corner however, onto the broad and spacious T-Junction, Crits turned to see an incoming truck! Ahead of the group, he spun on the balls of his feet to stop the others from ending up in that fate. Outstretching his arms, he caught the group…knocking him back very slightly…the truck caught a patch of his fur, brushing it slightly giving him a slight fearful sensation in his heart. Now, the stationary targets looked easy prey for Lone's vicious and unstoppable driving.

"INCOMING!" Yelled the cackling Liger.

Carmelita stood as the car kept coming in, as Tusks pulled Pinky and Crits to safety far away from the original spot. Carmelita ran forward, jumping over the top of the car, spinning like a great gymnastic flea that flies high and spins as it lands. Lone in turn slid the car around to try and keep Carmelita in sight…she signed to the others to get out of sight. They happily obliged. Lone spied the Fox in his sights…

"Batter up!" He haled.

Carmelita reached into her pocket, finding a metal object – the key to Crits' house that his mother gave her a few days ago: she kept it for emergencies – like this. She looked at the car's front tyre and through the metal bullet. The tyre burst with the same sound as a popped balloon. The car spun violently, weaving left-to-right, still trying to aim at Carmelita, but another athletic leap cleared her from the screaming vessel of trouble. The last the group saw of this scenario in person was at it clipped the side of the pavement of spiralled upward…falling straight towards the front of a partially demolished house. Fortunately, they missed and lived. Equally as fortunate, the car landed in a partially filled skip at the front of the house. The response of the group was a fairly obvious one: "RUN!"

As they were cleared of the space, Tusks and Pinky turned to Carmelita in a closed and contained manner. They just walked away from her…but she couldn't blame them for not having much to say: if she were thinking of her brothers and what she would say to them if she knew they weren't going to be in each other's' lives for much longer, she'd probably turn away just the same. Crits stayed. He was red and shy, just like always.

"Hey Carm…erm…I don't know what to say here. It's just…"

"You'll miss me? I kind of put my finger on that. I know you haven't much since the last time with Lone, but it really wasn't a problem. You don't like my tea, don't keep it to yourself"

"I'm sure your tea is normally sweet…Just like you…no, hell…what do I mean?"

Carmelita smiled slyly, as her face moved in closer to his. Both of their lips touched in ways that Crits could only have hoped for over the last few weeks. He'd never thought that this would be the case, even though for Carmelita, it was all she could really think about for that time. As they pulled back, Carmelita only said three words to the charmingly shy, athletic yet breathless Cheetah.

"Stay in touch"

She smiled as she walked away.

**Vigo, Spain, 4th July 1998**

It was Carmelita's 18th birthday. Just before she went to begin her day at the work in the Registry office, she begun by placing a photo of her family, from just under five years prior – the way they always appear in her visions: even now. She kept the door locked when she did what she was about to do – she'd hate it if someone – ANYONE – could see this side of her. She would never want anyone to know that side of her, even Crits. She wanted to seem powerful and in control of her emotions and her body. This was a time when the two went out of control. Looking at the picture, she produced a longhand note from her drawer, and begun to read to the picture:

_Dear Fox Family of which I'm a part._

_This is the day that I turn 18, along with Diego Jr. and Paolo. They now have mature souls I guess, and that's enough for me in my opinion. I'd like to that you all can see how I'm doing. Uncle Aaron's kept me on full-time in the registry office. The managers are very impressed with me, and are evening listing me to be the potential boss of the establishment in the future. In my mind, that just means more money and paperwork to get my hands on. Have a guess which I'm more accustomed to._

_I imagine little Santiago moving upward from simple drawing and starting on K'Nex or Lego around now. Trying to make the next Eiffel Tower – that's what Paolo always hoped for. I guess he can be God's little Architect – next to the great creator that's even more than Paolo could ever want. He's got his wish I guess…and Papa may be getting his own. Crits is now listed as being a hopeful contender for the 1000m in the next Olympic games – I'm saddened to tell you that illness on the day prevented me from doing the entrance exams, but I'll try for the next go. His dreams of one day starting a family to provide you with some grandkids are being slowly realised as well. After the Olympics, we'll see. I hope you would approve. I've been thinking of what would meet your approving standards since that night. Santiago's screams fill my silent moments, Paolo's loving hold fills my sad times, Diego's tactless sense of humour fills my moments of 'trying not to laugh at something you shouldn't' I guess. And Pap and Mama…you are always on my mind. One day, I will see you again, and when that happens, I hope for my soul to be to God's and your own standards…and for my body to be like a delicious wine – well-aged, and been the tool of many a good venture._

_Yours sincerely AND faithfully, always on my mind._

_Carmelita Montoya Fox._

She finished the letter, a tear of happiness and sadness splattering onto the paper. Ah well, time to get ready for work now, and to see what Aaron and Suzanna had in store for her newly acquired adulthood. Just before she went down stairs, she picked up the newspaper from yesterday she meant to read. Lone's face was all over the front page – it had been a monthly occurrence since the crash of his dad's car. This time was the failed robbery of a liquor store – only the latest/funniest in a long-line of failed jobs. But in the image, Carmelita noticed something that made her eyes burn – one of the cameramen behind Lone in the picture was a Tiger – a Tiger with two long scars across his face, holding the camera just enough for it those scars be visible…but…no, it couldn't be…

**Vigo, Spain, 4th July 1998 (later that day)**

Carmelita, driving her new car into the car park outside the most prominent café in the whole of Vigo – not as prominent for glamour or comfort as any in Barcelona, but it was one all were going to get use to. The car was a two-door police-siren blue little arrow like car, with looks that could break the speed limit as soon as it took off, that handled like the masterful pen of a writer, or the easel of a painter, in the hands of the incredibly beautiful and skilled woman driving it. Her partner – Crits, dressed up really smart in a black suit and tie combo that made him look like an advertisement for high-class banking attire due to the addition of his sunshine blonde hair being combed back and slicked with a very small amount of wax – stepped from the car. He walked around the car to the side of the driver's door, and opened it for his own partner. Carmelita looked very elegant, as opposed to her normal daywear which was more revealing and (arguably) tasteless. This black dress stretched to just below her knees from her shoulders, showing off nothing except her glorious feet inside white small healed shoes, and her face with its immaculate features and her hair tied back blue hair in a bunch.

They enter the café to celebrate her birthday; the place is darkly lit yet still providing a feeling of warmth, quite an adequate metaphor for Carmelita then. The fox Waiter handed the menus to the romantic budding couple. The waiter also handed a present wrapped with a single piece of blue silk as binding, tight in a triple knot. It was a book: a cookbook of recipes by the café's owner, Miss Sana Rodgerio. This was exactly the thing Carmelita was hoping for on her birthday. True, she'd gotten a car – the teenage tool of freedom and space – and Crits' gift of gold ear-rings with the single diamond stud in each were cute – she'd even worn them out tonight for him. This book – how to bake as great a pie, or bread rolls as the great new baker – was what she could truly use.

**1 hour later…**

Crits wiped his mouth from finishing his starter. Carmelita never cared for doing that. That was her charm, her fiery Latin attitude to the problems of neatness. Then again, Crits' mannerisms made this hardly a surprising fact that he'd be privy to crumbs and stains around his mouth. Conversation had been few this evening, allowing the space to engulf the pair to make the experience what it was: great. Suddenly, Carmelita looked up. There was another set of couples being interviewed over at the furthest table from them. Crits was immediately giddy with glee, as he recognised the pair as the stars of the latest in a long-series of action films that went back years. Carmelita had a look at the cameraman doing the interview, as he held the camera enough to focus on the interviewees, but also for his face – his scarred Tiger face with keen eyes – to be shown. Carmelita took Crits' hand.

"I don't have a problem with this place at all, but I really think we need to leave"

"Leave? We've only had…"

"I know! Please…my head hurts…"

Carmelita got up, running to her car, as Crits threw some money from the bill onto the table.

**Vigo, Spain, 1st March 1999**

This was the proudest moment of Carmelita's life so far, but also the one of the greatest anticipation. Here she stood; she was ready to take her run-up for the triple jump that would be set to make her the champion of Vigo's own Gymnastics U20's champion! This event was a big deal within not just the small town of Vigo, but within Spain itself, as there were rumours spreading that the winner of this may become head listed for the Spanish representative of the next Olympic games.

Carmelita looked around the waiting room at her competitors – she knew all of them, and their inconsistencies and style. Needless to say, she fancied her changes against the Baboon called Bridgett, the Snake nicknamed 'Slither' and the Raccoon Simonetta. The victory here would be the icing on Carmelita's presently pleasant cake: the last 3 years in her career at the Registry had provided many promising turnarounds – the manager (Aaron) was now close to quitting and the board of greater directors viewed her as being the protégé the business needed. That combined with Crits' running AND also the recent payout to him listed in his great-aunts will, the two were almost set to make their leave and live on their own. Oh such joy! The announcer screamed out over the tannoy.

"Carmelita Fox to the stage please!"

She withdrew her gaze from her contestants. She was steely, and focused, and set to take first place.

BANG! The closure of her performance was greeted with mass applause, as Carmelita did a full doubled somersault off the pummel horse, twisting every way imaginable, and landing softly on her feet, the mat even being generous enough to offer a single booming clap as an approval of her skill as she landed pleasantly upon it. Crits leaned to her over the barrier as she left to go back to the dressing rooms to change…and the kiss he placed cited both cries of adoration at the "cuteness" of everything to do with the image and background of this pairing, and also jealously from other teens in the crowd. To Crits however, it was just beyond words.

Carmelita turned with the others from the centre stage, now dressed in her normal clothes, as the result was announced. The cameras and eyes were all on her. One cameraman did catch her eye however…who's is that…that face again…

_Santiago screamed as Paolo shielded him as best he could from the bullets, but never the less, they went straight through the brothers, blood staining the floor and joining the pool of blood already over the floor. Carmelita laid face-down and blood-smeared as the bullets pierced her flesh, hitting her kidney and causing the huge suffering upon her body. One sound was audible within the rushing of pouring blood…and that the Tiger – Scarface she called him – filming her 'dying' moments. He was laughing, salivating, and looking like he was experiencing Ecstasy at the moment. He ran, but he'd already had all the footage he needed…and her nightmares were implemented. She reached the phone and dialled for the Police. Her message only left her address, with a simple message: "Save me…please…" The last words she heard before her final fade was a policewoman leaning over her, screaming "She's alive! We have a live one! Quick, get her a stretcher and a respirator!"_

She came out of her screams of pain to find a crowd roaring with approval. A medal around her neck, and looked closer and deeper at the colour of the medal – it was gold. That was good – anything else would've been unsatisfactory to her. She looked up at Scarface from the balcony as he turned. His T-Shirt said "SBC", or Spanish Broadcasting Corporation. So he was professional now…she knew that much. Intent on gaining information, she marched back into the changing rooms, even blanking Crits on her way past. This left Crits only slightly confused.

Outside the gymnasium, the staff caravan was there. And Carmelita could spy from a distance, from behind a lamppost that Scarface had just walked in. Now was her chance. She sent one quick text to Crits before moving on. Just saying "Business to sort. Don't wait up". She half-grimaced and half-smiled – true, she'll be facing her phantoms, but soon she'll get to kick it squarely in the jaws.

She opened the door of Scarface's caravan. It was haunting. He was sat on the sofa, tissue in hand. On the TV screen was footage playing: it was Scarface himself, along with the Iguana – Enrico, that's another name she had in her brain – and the Wolf and the Hyena. They looked like they were doing something to some poor Snail on the screen. It was screaming, and wailing as the Iguana took a big and solid hammer and bought it down on the shell of the creature, shattering its shell. Looking around, there was more stuff to suggest a sordid philia of this horror. On the table Carmelita saw a plateful of Fish'N'Chips. Next to her was a collapsed Tri-pod. All over the floor was crinkled up, messy tissues. She reached for the Tri-pod, holding it firmly in both hands and creeping up behind Scarface, she hollered out for his attention:

"Room service!"

She turned around, startled then confused, as the Tri-pod impacted on his temple. He hit the floor, unconscious. Carmelita looked around the room…what here could she use for what she wanted and needed to know and understand? There was a chair with standard armrests and recliner. There was rope and leather straps, and film reels. She looked behind her…and found a huge cabinet of stock reels. Each was labelled with a date; one of those dates was the 15th of November, 1993. She cricked her neck, and smiled with guilty pleasure. The man who'd been visiting her dreams for the last 6 years was about to get a visit in turn…


	4. Carmelita's Journey Begins

_**Sly Cooper: Vida La Carmelita**_

**Vigo, Spain, 1st March 1999**

Scarface slowly regained consciousness. His head was groggy and saw, and he could barely look straight. He tried to clean his eyes out, and hold his bleeding leg, from the newly opened cut that was bleeding heavily from his knee downwards…but he felt his arms tied back out the hole in the chair and he couldn't move them at all. He looked at his screen, on pause and then play. Carmelita could feel his fear and unease in the chair. The images played: the same as the ones Carmelita had dreamt of over the last six years. The image paused again, and now, the 19 year old Carmelita stepped into his line of vision…and Scarface whimpered a sad and pathetic noise. Carmelita stood powerful and potent, almost joyous in what she had planned. She looked at a piece of plastic lying on the desk, next to a tissue full of discharge. She read that name on it.

"So your name is…Voyra. Well that's good. I've spent the last six years calling you something else, something of a nickname from when I cut you, before you hurt me JUST as bad. So glad we're on equal terms now, it makes me feel a little better finally."

She leaned over his sweat ridden face.

"It's pointless me telling you what you did…BECAUSE YOU KNOW! DON'T YOU!"

"I-I-I think you got the wrong man…I'm just a cameraman" Voyra bluffed. This didn't work, and Carmelita's gloved fist launched out and punched the man on the good side of his face

"You yellow-bellied sick-minded no-good-for-nothing-except-dying LIAR! I know who you are – you've haunted me in my dreams long enough for me to get your face right!"

"OK then. Yes…I was a member of _Mano del Diablo_. I did jobs. I had no choice in most of them though"

"QUIT…LYING! You had a choice…you had a choice to leave a little 13 year old girl bullet-ridden and dying, drenched in her brother's blood with the image of her shot mother on the floor while you filmed and cackled, so you could get your satisfaction later it seems"

Carmelita pulled back from the man.

"I promise I won't kill you. No – there's enough in this room to get you life sentence upon life sentence. What I will do is make your time now really painful if you don't tell me what I want to know Voyra."

Voyra nodded and continued to whimper.

"What…what if I don't want to. You'd gain nothing from killing me, and I won't talk anyways…"

"Don't be so sure. That's a nasty looking set of wounds you have there Voyra sir. Nice and deep right – some of them I remember very well. And that Fish'N'Chips was quite tasty, but…the salt on it seems specific to anywhere other than the local chippy right?" Smiling, Carmelita placed the pot of salt onto the table, pouring a small amount into her hand. Voyra couldn't scream – his throat was too hoarse – and even if he could, the caravan had sound-proof padding all over, so no-one find out on this sick stuff before. She advanced towards him.

"Tell me about the others. Their full names, locations, etcetera. Any detail you care to say at all? Please don't be shy"

"N-No, no you witch! I know nothing!"

Carmelita took the fistful of salt, and without a flicker of resentment in her eyes, ground the salt deeply into Voyra's cut on his leg. He was writhing in agony, struggling against the pain of the salt and the bonds that held him in his seat. Finally he had enough.

"Yes, OK! I know where the Wolf is: he works on a side operation for the _Diablo_. He's dealing with narcotics distribution over the Mexican and Chilean boarders. He's based up in La Paz far away from anything too important."

"What his name?"

"Name is Winstone. Big brawny guy, silent talker though. We called him Hunter as a nickname"

"Last bit irrelevant, but well done" Carmelita coldly spoke.

"What about your leader – the one who really called the shots that day…Enrico, I believe?"

"I don't know where he's based. You'll find out enough about him to know if you searched him online. Name's Enrico Conte…"

"The half-Mexican, half-English gangster…yes I've heard his name spoken in hushed whispers around the Police station. Quite a fearful little _Vato_ isn't he?"

Voyra simply nodded.

"He is" Voyra continued "Him and the Hyena are still part of the direct leadership of _Mano del Diablo_. You'll find them in the same spot"

"…thank you, Phantom of my dreams" She kindly spoke. Walking around to the table again, she picked up the entire pot of salt. She also took the tape of her family's execution and placed it into the CD-ROM of Voyra's laptop. Few minutes later, and the footage was successfully burned onto her own CD for safe keeping. She then advanced back towards the struggling Voyra, salt in hand.

"WAIT! I told you all I knew!" He protested.

"I know. But you killed my family, and you deserve this for that"

She took a big handful of salt and drove the salt straight into his leg, causing cries of agony from the great wimpish Tiger. Next were the cuts on his face. As soon as his scream died down, Carmelita had had enough: she'd visited the demon in her hand after so long…now she'd done enough to visit him in his dreams in return. Brandishing the Tri-pod once more, she took a series of blows across his face with it, until he was unconscious – maybe even permanently damaged.

Carmelita left the caravan, checking she wasn't being observed. She left a voice message to the ambulance on Voyra's phone, telling them he needed help. She knew that this may raise one or two alarms, but given the immense payload of other evidence in the room connecting him to _Mano del Diablo_, it's likely that would be the more immediate interest.

Leaving the gymnasium studios, Carmelita walked towards the car-park where she'd arranged to meet Crits with his car. The car-park was very nearly completely full, save one to maybe three spaces still left available. Crits called out to her.

"What was that all about – you've been gone for over an hour. I was thinking about leaving you after 50 minutes but knew you'd be back soon I guessed"

"I'm…sorry Crits. I just had a few troubles regarding sleep to get rid of: just spoke to the Doctor regarding a prescription. Had to find a free slot though, so it was a wait"

"OK then. I'm proud of you winning today, and I love you" Crits said as he softly yet shyly leaned in to kiss her. Just as this was going on, police sirens filled the air. Carmelita presumed they were turning up for Voyra's body, but in the distance she could see something more current to the bad situation: the mass of policemen were chasing a snake through the car-park. This snake was a large reptile – a boa-constrictor – coloured in green with single black bowtie around him, tied just behind where his head ends. Carmelita recognised him from the newspapers: Slither, weighing 200lb and being 8ft in length, wanted for GBH in Vigo and in other Spanish towns. Slither was approaching them, swiftly in-between the few gaps between cars, which the brawny, ape-like police seemed unable to get through. Slither was making good pace…until he became caught between the gang of police and an elderly goat stepping from her car. She had just enough time to look up, before the snakes body was wrapped around her. He begun a good hold her, looking up at the police and laughing.

"_Hola, policías matones!_ Can't do a thing to do me now. You clear a way from here to the Airport, or I'll break this _edad bint_ like a walnut!"

Slither's slippery accent, with ascending consonant sounds, only proceeded to make the goat worry harder, as she could feel the creaking sound her worn-out bones made as he squeezed her. The snake was pulling her back towards where Crits and Carmelita were stood. This was right in the direction that Slither wasn't looking. Carmelita took a lightning pace towards the snake, her fist flying out right into the back of the Boa's head. Reeling, he unwrapped himself from the goat – leaving her hard-for-breath but still alive – and turned to face her. The police readied their guns, Crits braced for something, and Slither looked ready to pounce. Carmelita's fist struck out again, and then the great snake fell, limp and loose like a broken vine from a tree. The police all looked aghast at this sight, as Carmelita just stood over the criminal, and look him straight in his unconscious eyes.

"Godammit! Had it with those damn criminals in this damn town!"

The policemen all looked up, shocked that a 19 year old girl had just taken down one of their main targets. Carmelita stood proud and pleased: proud to be a part of the police's affections, and pleased to beat the hell from yet another criminal. Next thing she knew, a camera flashed in her face.

**Mexico City, Mexico, 4th March 1999**

Three days after Voyra's assault, _Mano del Diablo_ headquarters received word of his conviction. In the room stood the four most senior members of the organisation: the Hyena from the night of the Fox family execution, Winstone the wolf, a masked man – tall and slim – wearing a bullet proof vest over a regular sports vest and combat trousers and boots, with only his muscular arms and fox tail showing through the clothes, and finally there was Enrico Conte. Enrico Conte, an Iguana, stood tall and imposing, his skin a gloriously wealthy shade of purple with speckled green bits in face that looked like spots. His face was clean-shaven however which showed a necessity to avoid that unnecessary attribute to his appearance. His streamlined and slim figure that did nevertheless show a powerhouse of working muscles and strength underneath the cream suit he wore was juxtaposed by the combed back set of grey hair that sat on his head: showing age that his whole other attire didn't show. He strolled across the room like a man walking calmly and peacefully through the park, carrying a container of chicken drumsticks over to the piranha tank in the corner of the big boardroom that the group occupied. One by one, the legs fell in, and they just as quickly disappeared. One of the guards, a Bat, entered the room with both a cup of tea and a newspaper. He was running and panting and out of breath.

"Voyra's just been sentenced today!" He cried. Voyra's arrest had put the rest of the gang on high alert, but whilst the verdict was always going to be obvious, they needed to see it for themselves "2 consecutive life-sentences for all of the footage found in his caravan. They never bothered with a jury trial cos' of all the stuff they found: tissues, film reels etcetera. They knew a jury would have no sympathy for him so he went down…crying according to the drawings"

Enrico turned to this guard, and looked him in the face.

"What about the one who got him for the cops"

"Who said someone got him for the cops? Maybe the cops wised up to his antics; he wasn't a smart guy, maybe he made a mistake"

"What? Are you saying a cop would both beat up and torture a man before leaving him in agony for several minutes? You really haven't got a brain on your shoulders"

"I reject that theory…"

"Well then prove it to me please!" Enrico took the spoon from the man's tea "Display any sign of idiocy in this room again, and I will personally kill you with this spoon" His Mexican accent ascending every syllable in the English way he was brought up. He took the newspaper and read the article, reading how Voyra had taped many hours worth of footage regarding their 'jobs' and had used them after his retirement from the organisation for his own sexual gratification. "God I feel sick reading this!"

Winstone spoke up "But didn't we get any enjoyment doing that stuff to that little kid from the Spanish royalty? Or any of those robberies where everyone got shot or hurt"

"Oh yes…I loved it. But I didn't jerk off to it afterwards to get my kicks" Enrico adjusted his suit to erase the slight movement that came when he shook in anger at Voyra's behaviour. "But, never mind that documented footage of all our crimes has been found. The law is unable to issue a warrant, or threaten us: they'll have to find us first, and that's not going to happen. But whoever did Voyra was likely not police…"

The masked man walked forward with the newspaper of his own, turned to Page 4 "In other news, Slither – the GBH guy from Vigo – got taken out the same day. By a girl, would you believe it?!"

Enrico snatched the article from his hands. He read the article, and then he had a moment of realisation, and he turned to the rest with a shocked expression on his face "Slither was caught in Vigo…Voyra was beaten up in Vigo on the same day. We're dealing with a vigilante here! Whether they're going after all crooks or they have an agenda, I say this is serious…wait a minute…" He read the article on Slither's arrest. "'Slither was taken down not by police, but by Carmelita Montoya Fox, a 19 year old gymnastics champion who'd earlier won an Olympics qualifying tournament that day'" He read "Gentlemen, I think I know who it is"

"But sir…she's only a 19 year old: she won't have the first clue how to go about finding us" The guard spoke.

"Well" Enrico said "If my memory serves me correctly, that girl would've seen enough to make her angry enough for total revenge. Trust me, I know" He smiled "For the while, continue with business as normal. Winstone, keep the shipments going. Silver, you can oversee the finances for all of this – we need the boat in working order for then. Jame (referring to the Hyena)…just stay around" The Hyena slowly nodded and giggled an immature childish giggle.

Enrico then turned to the guard, and took a step closer to him, holding the spoon. The guard stopped with baited breath. Enrico struck out with the spoon low town, and the Guard whimpered but soon recomposed himself. Enrico walked away…but turned back to show the guard the bloody spoon handle that had just pierced his femoral artery. The guard then collapsed.

"On second thoughts Jame" Enrico, turning to the Hyena who was licking his lips, signalled to the guard "Have a nice dinner this evening"


	5. Carmelita's Journey Continues

_**Sly Cooper: Vida La Carmelita**_

**La Paz, Bolivia, 1st April 1999**

The plane Carmelita was sat in rocked from the Turbulence on touchdown. During the flight up to La Paz to Vigo, she'd spent the time having the thoughts of what she'd planned to do with that crook Winstone when he was there at her feet. Just the next step towards Enrico Conte and his spectre on her thoughts…but there were more memories running through her head – her completely conscious head – relating to the cause she was fighting for…

_Carmelita's brothers, Diego Jr. and Paolo and Santiago, gathered in a small huddle up on the hill on top of the picnic blanket to keep the grass off of Diego's jeans – he hated the feeling of dead and crumbling grass messing up his jeans. Paolo hugged Santiago to him as his eyes turned red from the Hay fever. Surely he would've grown out of it. We can say that, except for this was the last full week before their execution so we can hardly say for certain. All that Carmelita knew was she watched over the three eating the cake that their mother had made and packed for all of them in this eventuality, and in spite of their own quirks and ways, she still loved and cared for them. Almost like a mother already, even at the age of 13; she kept them from trouble, and while Santana was slaving in the café and Diego Sr. was too preoccupied in the criminal world he infiltrated or just outright seeked to destroy, she was the one who kept the peace. It was like her father said to her, after she forcefully broke into her dad's shed in the garden to grab some tape to hold Diego Jr. leg in place, her he broke it from a fall in the hallway. _

_He would say "Carmelita, this world has rules: physical or legal they both exist and affect us. You have rules though – your soul has morals. Those rules can't be broken and what you have in your heart will stay untarnished. I know that for sure" To which she would say "But aren't those rules in the law broken so often? Have those people broken those moral codes?" And his response was "To them, no they haven't. I've made the legal rules of this world part of my morals, and I suggest you do the same – keeps you on the right path. By the way, you owe me a new shed"._

_Carmelita did what he said, and made those morals her own…if only she could give him that shed now. The rest of the picnic was good and tasty for the four of them as they sat drinking Peach nectar and eating freshly made sandwiches – Salmon, Jam, Bacon, all varieties sat upon White Bread – singing tunes that spoke to the moment. Santiago – only 9 – turned to Carmelita, and looked at her with all eyes glowing in the sunlight with glee and happiness, and said to her "Carm…sing us "Sweet Dreams" please". Carmelita shook her head but it wasn't enough to keep her being made to sing the Eurhythmics' classic tune. She sounded like a wounded weasel when she sang but Santiago liked it so it went on, as the birds in the trees cried at the poor quality of her voice. _

_The next set of memories that occupied her head was from the orphanage, mainly on the last day before she was picked up by Uncle Aaron and Aunt Suzanna. The only other thoughts that crowded her brain involved those repeating images of her families shooting; herself being splattered with Santana's blood, deafened by Santiago's tears, and exhausted by her attempts to hold on. The nurses and doctors all knew Diego Sr. and were sympathetic towards her. One nurse who cleaned the blood from her clothes said "After seeing all this, I would have welcomed death. She's a strong girl" but it skipped straight from there to the orphanage back in Barcelona – same place she'd met Crits. On her last day, she was stood in the dinner hall, next to Crits, head bowed to the front as grace was passed. As the head finished his speech, Carmelita could noticed out of the corner of her eye, a little girl – a Magpie – fishing around in Carmelita's bowl for extra scraps for herself…what followed the heads calling of "Amen" was the Magpie's beak being battered into the table top repeatedly until it was appropriate to haul the mad vixen to the head's office. It was in that place – less than 3 months after the event – that she met Suzanna for the first time, and Aaron…kind old Aaron, so nice and good. The head welcome her departure: Carmelita guessed it was tiredness from dealing with all the bullies she hurt, acting the sheriff in her own little town. Crits would follow her to Vigo about 2 years later, adopted by widowed Cheetah on the edge of town. Oh Crits…true most of her blood relatives were gone, but at least he remained. Nevertheless, she HAD to do this. Even though if it weren't for Enrico or Winstone…that Hyena…or even Voyra they'd have never met, they still took her old life away. Time to take the payment in kind!_

La Paz was a bustling, busy place usually. Cars buzzed around the place and despite the obviously high altitude, everything was considered a fairly busy place. But in the capital of Bolivia, situated high-up in the mountains, all was deathly silent. The wrecked houses forced masses of people onto the streets, under carts for shelter, as the huge massive wolf – obviously Winstone from his appearance, which was just as big and burly was he was all those years ago, albeit with slightly greyer fur – stalked the streets with two Tiger guards behind him armed with large wooden branches that had been petrified and hardened in fires to make solid instruments with which to beat anyone Winstone desired.

From the entrance of the Motel she was staying in, all was PAINFULLY clear to her that Winstone and _Mano del Diablo_ needed to be stopped. No reason in the world against it could exist. She clothed herself in the yellow jacket and blue crop top with matching blue jeans, and slinked her way through the door and into the town, trying to keep as out of sight as possible. Among the guards, it was easy to keep out of sight around the poorly dressed local people. To the guards, she just looked like someone who'd managed to source better clothing than most. She got near enough to the town centre, filled with Tigers and whimpering and terrified little panther families. One Tiger turned to eye at a Panther girl of obviously teenage age, licking his lips very subtly as he did so. The girl looked scared, but Panther still took her neck in his hand and pulled her away from her crying parents. The guards all looked at his gleaming yet twisted smile, and the girl's parents arose from the rotted out section of a building that had fallen through, leaping at the girl's attacker. Carmelita ached to get involved…but her cover would be blown. 'Hang on' she thought: 'I need a costume change!' Looking to the left of her, there were rags of clothes, dusty and brown but needs must. They may have just about fit her, but then again, so did her normal clothes. The Panther pulled harder on the girl as he finally tugged her from her family, before his initially triumphant eyes met with Winstone's own scornful ones.

"Whatever you think on doing…don't. I'll see to it that if you hurt her in ANY way, Enrico will have your tail"

The Panther quivered "Y-Yes sir" He relaxed his grip.

Winstone kindly took the girl under his arm, but she still was trembling. He and his armed assortment of guards gathered in the centre of the dissolute shell of what was once a thriving city. He took a megaphone from one of his Panther guards, as the disguised Carmelita watched from a distance.

"Listen up all those who care – and since we've left airports open for you to leave if you want, then you must obviously ALL care even a touch. Enrico Conte as you know is running a grand scheme, and he would like some of your men and women to join him in it. This little beauty here has volunteered…who else wishes to? You'll be highly rewarded if you do. In other news, shipments are stopping. Me and the boys are leaving here tonight. You can work on rebuilding plans for your city in due course, but now is the time to take those trucks down the _Yungas Road_ and grab the last of our stuff, and your food of course. Good day and goodbye on the morrow"

He dragged the girl back away from the crowd, as she looked on and looked back to her wailing family, finally disappearing behind a secure set of barred and locked gates. Carmelita looked on; she was feeling burdened even more than before…she had two major things to find out before morning: What's down in the rainforest? Why does _Mano del Diablo_ want random citizens for its latest criminal endeavours?

**Vigo, Spain, 1st April 1999**

Aaron sat back in his armchair, downing his gin straight as he pondered on his niece's progress. He hadn't spoken to her since the week prior she'd requested a week long leave from the Registry office…she'd said "Me and Crits have a holiday booked…it's non-refundable if you don't mind". He'd said "Sure". But even before then their relationship had grown distant. To Suzanna, Carmelita had always been a burden, but now she was becoming one to him as well. Suzanna came and sat on the arm of the plush pink armchair – the only bit of colour in the clinically white house. She cuddled her arms around him as he swallowed hard on his drink.

"What's the matter bubs?"

"I don't know at the moment Suzie. Carmelita should be back tomorrow and I know I should be happy, but in all honesty, I have no idea what's going on with her right now"

"She's a 19 year old girl Aaron – even they have no idea what's going on in their heads" They both sniggered to this.

"I suppose you're right. It's just recently she has become hostile and inattentive at work, distant at home. This isn't the girl I spent 6 years forming into what she was until recently"

"You think she's never gonna get over the events from back in Barcelona do you? I'm aware of what she may be feeling more than she herself may even know…"

"Suzie…what happened with all that business is not a pleasant time. Carmelita experienced it first hand, and that you can't really imagine or compare with"

Suzanna turned red gradually with anger, gradually like a chameleon adjusting to the surroundings of it, before the final pounce of her caged anger that made her long-in-the-tooth husband quiver in both fright and surprise.

"Compare…COMPARE? Don't you dare say that! I had them that day, in my…OUR…grasp. And then, that hellhound Conte got out, and I watched him leave smiling – murderer, drug-dealer, terrorist, armed robber, torturer and executioner leaving a police station in a cream suit smiling is almost a joke!"

She sat up from the armchair and poured herself a glass of Aaron's gin downing it in one, only her wiping her mouth being the range of her reaction. Aaron stood up and hugged her from behind, his hands mildly paralyzed from fear but his heart warm with love.

"Look" she said "I'm sorry about that: could say it was bad phrasing. I mean Carmelita may see her family in her dreams. I'd say she sees her dad in the mirror almost every day – he stilled that desire to be in the police in her…one day that may happen"

"Before she gets tired of the Registry office?"

"Oh yes" Aaron and Suzanna laughed-gasped – it was one of the few times that Aaron had managed to crack a funny joke.

Suddenly they both heard a knock at the door. The two looked at the clock – 9:15pm. Aaron reached behind his settee and pulled out a baseball bat, as he walked to the door and opened it…and he stared opened eyed with shock at the sight of who stood in-front of him directly; in-front of him was Carmelita's hopeful future husband…Crits, a day earlier than arranged for him to be home. Still he spoke.

"Hey Aaron…Suzanna. Sorry it's late but I had to do overtime at work, then go straight to the track for training. I heard Carm gets back tomorrow…

"Yes, she gets back WITH YOU tomorrow! From holiday to La Paz of all places…wait…Suzie, when did the recycling get taken out?"

"Tomorrow…why?"

Aaron dived his hands into the recycling, and found at the very bottom was a paper was last week, with the front page ripped off. Aaron and Suzanna's confusion continued to stand.

**La Paz, Bolivia, 1st April 1999**

Carmelita, dressed in the blue jeans and yellow jacket underneath the rags, looked on at the Tigers loading crates into the back of the Lorries within La Paz, about to get down to Amazon to collect the 'belongings' of Winstone and his crew. There was one crate left to be packed, the Tigers turning to face down the immense road that lay before them…it was a dangerous road, but it had to be done for the sake of their leader's desires. The gaze off into the distance abruptly stopped as the Tigers went to pick up the final crate before pausing momentarily.

"This crate feels full. Thought we'd done them all yesterday"

"Don't bother with it. We have enough ammo to take down the Spanish army as it is, one crateful of guns isn't gonna go amiss. We'll say there was a faulty batch"

The gang of Tigers shrugged and heaved the crate onto the Lorry, before sealing the door behind it as they set off down the road leading onto the Mountain side road.

Inside the crate, Carmelita kept quiet and still. She was glad none of them had to open up the crate and find her hiding but right now she had to find out about those guns that were waiting down by the Amazon…and if they were implicated in a potential war with the Spanish army…

She continued to sit quietly and still in the crate, until she gasped as the wheels of the Lorry veered very slightly off the road. She heard footsteps outside the crate after this loud gasp, and now was the point that her heart started palpitating – the Lorries cabin and the hold for cargo was only separated by a small piece of sliding glass, and that glass sliding had clearly signified she had been heard.

"Is there something is this crate? Something that gasps and breathes and stuff?"

"No. Just stand watch back there in case"

Those were the voices she heard. The guard looked at the crate and she sat in looking out. Then, brandishing the petrified piece of wood, he sighed before sitting down on top of the crate in which she had concealed herself.

A kick and a simple beat: that was what followed as Carmelita broke out of the crate and knocked the Tiger hard on the temple to leave him unable to do anything. Taking the stick, she ran to the door and held it to the guards head.

"Don't look at me, don't focus on me you idiot – an accident will happen otherwise!"

"Don't worry – I hear ya…"

"Good. Where are you and your co-drivers going?"

"To the edge of Amazon. To a factory"

"Factory of what? Something for locals – beds, clothes, stuffed teddies?"

"No – military"

"Right, take us there. And don't radio the others! If you do, I'll beat you like a piñata!"

**The Amazon Forest, Bolivia, 1st April 1999**

The trucks all pulled up outside the immense complex that towered strong within the forest of trees and wildlife. The complex pouring out smoke in vast and great quantities. The Tigers all unloaded from the Lorries…all except those in Lorry number 5.

"Hey! What's keeping you?"

The door opened, and the athletic foxy figure stepped forth, clutching one hand the petrified stick, and in the other was the collar of the Lorries' driver. She threw him to the floor as the others tried to step towards her.

"Who are you?"

"Someone with no forgiveness at all for the members of _Mano del Diablo_, that's who I am! Now open those crates and I'll be on my way, or so help me I'll see my wrath is unleashed on you!"

The birds in the sunny Jungle canopy chirped a happy tune to try and drown out the sounds of fighting going down in the undergrowth, but they all kept wincing at every blow that contacted with any single person involved in that struggle…Carmelita spinning around in a vicious circle with the staff that caught every guard squarely and caused them immense hurt. It was a balletic display of violence – both beautiful and brutal simultaneously. The band of Tigers fell she looked up at the looming factory gates, behind the stash of new gates to be driven back up to Winstone's property. She rushed to the crates full of, fear and ecstatic wonder, to what may be inside. Taking the petrified stick like a crowbar, she forced it into the opening and tugged hard on the roof of it. Inside was a treat…a rack of freshly made and highly technical guns, red in colour but with a golden binding on the barrel and trigger. This was no ordinary pistol – for a start it was lighter than a regular gun, and it had some weird glowing blue antenna at the very back of it, possibly a power pack. She aimed the gun straight upwards to the sky and fired off a 3 rounds…she teared up slightly and holding her eyes closed and the memories of her family to her heart she fired off the extra 18. At the end she held her eyes but let go of her feelings as the tears echoed around the rainforest like the pounding raindrops on the forest floor. That was it: her families' memory had finally been honoured in her mind…just needed the right setting.

The honourary shoot had provided her with one important piece of information about the pistol – it did indeed run off a high voltage yet medium current AC adaptor that created pure balls of plasma repeatedly for a gun that never would run out of ammo. It came with its own holster as well.

Carmelita steadily reversed 5 of the 6 Lorries up to the entrance of the factory, lining them up one by one. This factory needed to be rid of, and so did the weapons. As she reversed the last Lorry up, she leapt into the Lorry she'd be using to get up to Winstone's base. She took one decisive look at the factory and thought of its fate and purpose. Then she took the pistol and closed her left eye so she could aim perfectly out her right straight for the fuel tank of the starting Lorry.

The lone Lorry pulled up at the great gates, as the Tiger on the commands didn't even choose to ask her to show ID as he was so used to the right ones going on through. The truck was parked up underneath the shadows where the 6 spaces would suggest how many should be there, and the ragged figure with the bushy tail took from the open towards the door that opened straight into the insides of the grand palace of evil. It was empty, much like the heart of Satan himself, so in a way it was fitting for a gang called _Mano del Diablo_ – the Devil's Hand. Carmelita's thoughts kept her going along the immense lightly lit corridors that seemed almost too easily to be led to the inner centre of the building. She ran in, dressed in the rags that only made her stick out more in the white and rich surroundings – plenty of vases lined up neatly on the shelves around the room signalled the apparent luxury of the place. The room she stood in contained numerous items of intrigue: the first was a large computer (made stereotypically out of the whole side of the room partnered by a much smaller CD-ROM drive, a huge Grand Piano, a hot-tub (what for someone may know) and finally what looked like a huge kennel…that was until Carmelita saw the little Panther girl from earlier weeping into her lap. She ran towards the locked door to get her out until she heard a loud thudding noise. Turning, she saw Winstone flanked by a small army of Tiger guards, looking on at her as they brandished their sticks and Winstone produced a gun exactly like the one she was holstering.

"Well…well…well. The factory down in the Amazon has just been blown up, and I bet any money that this little runt has something to do with it! Thousands in military development up the funnel, and I bet this runt has everything to do with it! You hear me, little punch bag?! You had NO idea what you've just messed with. I'll put you in that crate with the desirables, but unlike them, I'll starve you, taunt you, and occasionally beat you till your head cracks for the aggravation you caused me and Enrico Conte, leader of…"

"_Mano del Diablo_?" Carmelita dropped the rags off to show Winstone her true face and appearance – with the most obvious addition being the gun that she now has in her hand free of the holster "I know exactly what I'm messing with: unlike you that is"

"Who the hell are you – barge in here…"

"For a guy supposedly nicknamed 'Hunter' you do yap a lot, don't you?"

"…Wait a moment" Winstone readied his pistol, red-eyed with anger "You're that witch who messed up Voyra!"

"I'm no witch, thank you" She readied her own "I am Carmelita Montoya Fox: only daughter the murdered Diego Sr. and Santana Fox, only sister to the murdered Paolo, Diego Jr. and Santiago Fox…the only thing I'll leave left in your brain will be you wishing you'd killed me those 6 years ago too!"

The people in the crates stood at the doors to their cages, banging in eager rush, as the Fox and Wolf readied their pistols and the Tigers readied their sticks to brawl…


	6. Carmelita's Confrontation with Winstone

_**Sly Cooper: Vida La Carmelita**_

**La Paz, Bolivia, 1st April 1999**

The people in the crates stood at the doors to their cages, banging in eager rush, as the Fox and Wolf readied their pistols and the Tigers readied their sticks to brawl…

Carmelita aimed her pistol and took a shot straight to Winstone's chest, and the result of this was him violently shaking in a powerful fit that seemed to take a lot of breath from him. The Tigers response was to mildly smile before moving fast and powerfully with their staffs to attack the girl. Their approach was strong but the girl lashed out with her feet of fury and the Tigers found themselves being shot back violently. Winstone readied his pistol once again to fire at Carmelita...but as he looked up to aim he'd noticed that she was no longer on the ground for him to see…BANG! Her foot slammed him down, but his own hands rushed to his aid as they blocked her further attacks – his hands grabbing around her foot and flinging her away from him: she fell into the cages hard, creating a loud racket of metal being struck and a slight twinge of pain in her back that was as annoying to her as an itch.

"You came here to kill me?" Winstone goaded "You fool! You could've lived a life free of all this if you'd just let _Mano del Diablo_ out of your head. But no – you had to make us part of your destiny"

"No Winstone, I didn't make you a part of my destiny…you made yourselves a part of it" Carmelita clutched her pistol firmly.

"You didn't kill Voyra – too bad, he was a lousy little rat (a glorified guard). You'd have done everyone a favour"

"I'm not about doing you favours! What's the plan Winstone –Enrico's grand and potent scheme for the world – that you're obviously involved with?"

"Ohhhhh…you could've made that a part of your little destiny. Boy if you'd only known you would've loved it. Ah well, too bad I'm about to kill you now…"

Winstone reached inside the pockets of his uniform, throwing a small ball shaped object in Carmelita's direction. The fox launched up to see the impact of the item on one of the people inside. The person collapsed – awake but unable to move. As she landed, she observed with horror the glee on Winstone's face as he launched even more way, each one narrowly clipping her fur on the way past. As they impacted with the wall, Carmelita could see static buzzing off the spheres…she could only guess at their purpose for moment, as she raised her gun up and shot at Winstone once again, the massive Wolf collapsing down onto one knee but still having some degree of strength to control the pistol in her direction. He took one shot…and another…and another – all of these were attempts to keep her at bay from him as he tried to regain his strength and composition. But as he attempted to get back up, he fell back down and the fox attacked him viciously and repetitively like the way an over-eager games player would charge the enemy. From close range, he knew he could get Carmelita nice and close range; as she kept laying into him, he raised the pistol to slightly point her way – at her foot – and he pulled the trigger, but too late as her foot rose up and the pulsating blast of plasma travelled straight underneath the foot came down on his face, causing some cracking sounds and bruised flesh. Winstone – the Hunter – was determined to not be prayed on like this, and struggled one more time: this time using his whole body to slam against Carmelita's shins to shun her back. It worked to give him another attempt to stand back up again – the adrenalin forcing him to do so, and to allow him to throw another ball her way, but it still ventured over her shoulder. Raising her pistol, one last shot was fired from Carmelita's pistol straight into the wolf's body that finally fell him like a giant overfilled sack of potatoes. She rushed to him and felt for a pulse in his neck, and she breathed; she didn't want him dead just yet as there was the mystery of the computer to figure out and she'd clearly need his help for that.

She took one of the petrified pieces of wood and marched up to the cowering critters in the cage as they stood back from this mystery woman. Taking the wood, she marked out the spot to hit the locks and, in two whacks, shattered the padlock to the cage and in a single line they ran out of their confinement before the Panther that Carmelita recognised from earlier took her in a hug and wept wholly into the shoulder of her jacket. Carmelita brought her arms around her, feeling…suddenly enthralled and become with a sense of compassion: something she hadn't felt for a while yet. She looked to the group.

"Go back to your families – you didn't see me, you don't know my name and everything that happened here Winstone going on a mad rage. Even what happened to himself was a result of that – OK?"

The group nodded, and the small Panther girl looked at her…

"Thank you, kind mysterious girl. You've saved us…you're a hero to many!"

The army of Tigers at the door broke the moment, and Carmelita (skilfully changing the setting on her gun to multiple rounds) took a second and rattled the trigger and they all fell down, but unlike Winstone these people were unlikely to ever make their way back up again. She looked to the way that she'd just come down through the house, and although the army of men was out of sight, the marching and organising in the corridors signalled both the size and strength of the gathered group gathered by the door to stop the intruders and attackers. Carmelita reached down to the fallen man in the cage, and she pulled the sphere from his thigh where it struck, and he started moving and screaming once again as his motion returned. She then passed the staffs and beams to the other prisoners one by one, rallying them up into their own little miniature army.

"OK you guys – they only have staffs like you so no need to fear them. I'll cover you all and that is a promise from my heart"

"Thank you kind stranger!" came the collective cry from the group.

The panicked locals sprinted down the corridors, finally coming face to face with the men who'd abducted them all forcefully from their lives. They readied their weapons, as did Carmelita's posse. The Tigers gleamed with anticipation…until Carmelita stepped forward with her pistol in hand, and then they glowed with fear of her shock pistol. Looking straight down the barrel of the gun, she breathed in the moment of opened fired on the opposition. One or two of her targets dodged effectively and came running in teethed clenched. The young Panther girl and a male goat took one brave swing with their clubs and they soon had fallen too. The pair looked badly emotionally shaken up, but the group collected together hugging their shoulders and making them both feel broad and strong against the enemy. The next set of guards now looked sheepish and vulnerable – additional to being nervous since they were the last line of defence before the captives escaped. Carmelita stepped forward, shock pistol aloft and pulled the trigger, holding it down as the Tigers were fallen and the doors busted wide open as the shock pistols blasted the wood. The once captive people of La Paz ran through the doors, not looking back on the horror of the place that held them, but on the good grace of the person who saved them.

"Goodbye sweet and noble stranger" came the cry from them. The Panther ran back to Carmelita, and took another huge hug from her.

"You never told us your name" Carmelita said.

"I am Ruth. And what is yours? What you like the people of this place to remember you as?"

"Whatever you think I should be called" Carmelita laughed.

"When I hold you, I can tell you are made of strong stuff – you are like Iron. We called call you Miss Ironsides, and we shall remember you for being strong in defence and attack"

"Go Ruth. I have business to still deal with, with Winstone" She smiled.

Coming back into the main epicentre of the building, Carmelita looked around the place for useful means of a make-shift interrogation of Winstone: Voyra's means of interrogation had been pretty much served to her but here's was a bit more hidden. Winstone was still out unconscious so she had time to improvise in. Looking around the room there were two useful articles – a Piano and a Hot-Tub. 'Bella!' She thought! A stationary cupboard gleamed out of the corner of her eye, and running to it, kicked it open like a shot from a canon. A couple of long ties of rope fell from it. Carmelita had no clue to why rope was kept in this room – maybe Winstone used it to tie up difficult prisoners or intruders…well now it was to be used on him…

Winstone was laid out on top the covered Hot Tub, his hands slipknot behind his back and his huge arms tied strongly to his sides. Carmelita threw the remaining length of rope over the runner in the ceiling used to raise the Piano for cleaning underneath it, and then tied the end of the rope to the Piano to create a crude makeshift winch mechanism (what the length of rope was actually for). She had a while yet before he likely woke up. Looking around, she knew there must be a way to kill some time…and then she saw those vases, nice and spaciously arranged like targets…

She looked at them in the distance, viewing the vases as possessing the faces of those she'd viewed as criminals above everything – Slither, Lone, and of course the Tigers that made up _Mano del Diablo's_ function. Turning away at first – deciding to test her ability to turn to face her target and then shoot at her target – she closed her eyes, spun around…pulled the trigger…and the vase that she wasn't aiming for shattered. Cursing her gun, she tried another time, but this time she levelled her eyes with where the target would predictably be, and she spun once more. The sound of her guttural grunt as she pulled the trigger was the only thing in the room louder than the expensive glassware breaking into many pieces. She loved that sound – not the smash but the sound of her pulling the trigger. From then, this target practice became a simple case of releasing anger, as every variety of simulation of confronting an attacker was played through in her head. Shattered glass was lying all over the place, like a baptism of cuts and shards. To her however, it was a sign of her quality. Just at that moment however, she heard creaking movement from the ropes. She smiled a sad smile – Winstone was a much harder man than Voyra was, and she knew that she couldn't let him live…the first time she'd ever killed was the guards during her attack on this place, and that was sad. If only Winstone wasn't worth it. She turned the face the gigantic wolf tied up think and tight, as she walked to face him, she saw one of the remaining guards limping into the room. She could see him attempt an utterance – a valediction towards her unwelcome presence in the place – but he never got it out, as he was shot down instantly…

Winstone struggled to move his aching head up to face Carmelita in her power, as she stood strong and powerful over him, much like she had done before with Voyra.

"Happy days 'Hunter'!" Carmelita forcefully yelled in his face "Looks like today, you were the one hunted. Where'd you even get that nickname from anyway?"

"Voyra told you wrong – I'm not Hunter. He was never much good at anything that boy: he set up good security camera systems for Enrico's operations and that's the only reason we kept him – bet my life he's the one who shot you…if only it was me, then I'd be laughing over your grave right now like I will the rest of your dirty clan!"

Carmelita's foot burst out like an angry opinion, catching Winstone's nose and crunching it "If anyone's going to be dancing on any graves, it'll be me standing triumphantly over yours. First things first though, that computer over there looks interesting to me. If you give me the password at once, I'll be nice to you"

"The Password is _Diablo Grande_, no spaces all capitals"

Carmelita paused; that was very quick to give away an important password, especially for a member of an international criminal organisation. She entered it however, and it was certainly the correct password. The whole screen opened up with only one specific article in mind – there was a subject marked **'BLUEPRINTS'** which she clicked on. The blueprint in question showed the inner workings of a boat – the size of a ferry but with details of more additions to this boat that were exotic to other types of ferries made, such as shielding technology and powerful plasma weaponry. Carmelita's eyes absorbed the information in-front of her like a sponge…Enrico Conte's plan wasn't criminal, it looked set for warfare. She took her gun and pushed the muzzle firm and hard into Winstone's face.

"WHAT IS THIS? WHAT IS IT FOR?" she cried, pushing the muzzle so hard down that the barrel was leaving a mark in Winstone's face.

"It's the grand plan! Over 10 years of working for funds to create this thing. Every venture – from the bank robberies to the ransom demands to the dealings of cigars, for this: Enrico's grand plan for the world!"

"Dealing cigars? Voyra said…"

"Ignore Voyra! He barely knew his own name, let alone what our plans were. No, the cigars are exclusive concoctions by Enrico; they are tobacco mixtures that burn fat from your body the more you use them, he uses several a day himself. We made a killing on them – that was the main source of finance for this plan."

"And the plan is…"

"To rage war on Spain" Winstone said, his expression cold and clinical, into Carmelita's shocked and panicked face "That boat will contain our selected prisoners to create the Devil's own Eden! With Enrico at its head, we will create a great nation that will expand out across the globe. If only you'd have stayed out of our way: you could've been a great addition to the nation!"

"You are sick! You and the _Diablo_ – sick! And I'd rather die in attempting stopping you than live calmly under your rule. It's what Diego – my father – would've wanted. My brothers and my mother too, and even though I'll stop you for Spain, I'll stop you for them first!"

"Keep telling yourself that Princess. And you go after Enrico. You go after him and the real Hunters – Jame, the other one from that night – and our new addition to the leadership"

Finally Carmelita pulled the muzzle back from his face, and looked at him with confusion and not knowing "New addition?"

"The one arranging all of the military arrangements – a fox called Silver. You like him. No seriously you will. And one more thing: I am sorry about your family" He said the last part with complete sincerity "If I had seen what you did, I don't know how I'd even be able to function"

Carmelita shyly nodded "OK then" And she walked around to the grand Piano, pulling it back, raising Winstone off the cover to the Hot Tub. He looked upwards – downwards to Carmelita – in panic he shook violent against the ties, but that only resulted in the rope snapping and him falling hard into the water with a loud crashing splash. Carmelita didn't want to take the chance on him living, so she raised her pistol and fired it into the water, sending a shock throughout the pool. Winstone's body, tied and bound then came floating to the surface. Carmelita turned and left the house to set off home to Vigo without saying a word or thinking a thought, other than how despicable Enrico's plan was.

**Mexico City, Mexico, 1st April 1999**

Enrico watched on, angered and fuming: we watched the footage direct and live from Winstone's house of his interrogation and murder. That was wise of Winstone, and why he gave the password so quickly, so the immediate live feed on the computer would detail Carmelita's knowledge of their plan and much she would want to bring them down.

"That…damn…girl!" The slim and sturdy frame of Enrico shook as he bellowed his rage, his English accent still articulate and resonant. He puffed on his cigar, as he stood proud in his white suit with his slicked back white hair, his skin just as purple as it once was. The room had himself, Silver – his armoured shell gleaming bright – and Jame who was angrily looking at the screen, the same way a dog would look at a guest they didn't like in their home. Silver spoke first.

"She knows nowhere near enough to be dangerous just yet"

"Yes she does: she's seen the blueprints, the artillery design, and she even freed some of the prisoners! I've waited years for this plan to come to fruition, and I don't wish to see a vengeful little girl rip it to pieces. I will have my place, for I earned it" He looked up to the slovenly Jame "Jame – fancy a treat? Maybe some 19 year fox meat to munch on? Take the biplane to Vigo, Spain – that's where she must be living, if she is with her aunt and uncle. Track her down and kill her for me…please" Jame's lips started to drip with saliva "Just one thing: give me her so I know for sure she is dead; the rest you can eat"

Jame instantly ran from the room, as Silver looked on.

"He is just a mobile garbage can you know – why'd you bother with him?"

"Because he's a loyal mobile garbage can. And because I want that girl even more than dead – I want her annihilated – for this. I should've dealt with this sooner…oh damn me and my lack of focus…"

"Who is she anyway?"

"She is the lone survivor of the family of a man long since gone who worked for us. He made a fatal mistake in his life in membership, so we thought him and his family a lesson…she survived though. And now she wants to track us down and get us at our own game…funny! It's a marvellous thing; the loss of family makes people so…wanting for something they may not otherwise have wanted before"


	7. Carmelita's Confrontation with Jame

_**Sly Cooper: Vida La Carmelita**_

**Vigo, Spain, 2nd April 1999**

Carmelita returned back from La Paz let in the afternoon, touching down in the airport under the glimmering sunshine that pulsed down onto the Spanish buildings and soil. The place glowed bright with promise…Carmelita glowed bright with the burning and steely ambition to get closer to Enrico Conte and his despicable gang. Looking around, she could barely notice the change in the place. It was a bit older, but apart from that the colony stood happily. The biggest change was Carmelita's slightly darker fur, caused by the intense sun up in Bolivia, and also dirt from the Amazon jungle where she destroyed the plasma weaponry factory. That place held moments in Carmelita's life that she truly target to wonder: the possible future of Spain under the rule of a mad and sadistic king, the ease at which she took the life of Winstone in the name of…what? Justice? Family? Country? For now, revenge will be the easiest answer to consider for that. She looked up at the sun, prepared to start a one-woman war on _Mano del Diablo_ – using the sun as a light for her prayers and the fire in her heart.

She opened the door, her suitcase lugged with a large amount of exertion over the front step of the door. Inside the case was the heavily covered up plasma gun, that Carmelita had sneaked through airport security by covering it up with lead sealing from the roof of Winstone's base and covering that up very well with the clothes she wore over in La Paz, even the rags for her disguise. As she crossed the door, she looked up to see the cross-armed Suzanna and the sitting Aaron, too with crossed arms. They were looking right at her…the way an archer looks at his target before they let the string of the bow go.

"Nice holiday at all Carmelita? Where's Crits?" Aaron went first.

"Oh it was good. Got a nice tan – can you tell? Looked all over La Paz…saw the sights and things like that. And Crits felt a bit jetlagged, and he has a race in a few days, so he's gone home to get some rest" She bluffed.

"That's a bit unlike him" Suzanna inferred "Normally he follows you about all the time"

"You think? He has a life of his own; we're not joined completely at the hip"

"What, just joined at the heart or something soppy like that?" Both Aaron and Suzanna snapped in scary unison that made Carmelita look at them confused and uneasy. Aaron then added "Crits came to see us yesterday, said that apparently you'd just gone by yourself. So what were you doing over in La Paz – you went obviously because we had noticed your tan, yes. Are you cheating on Crits at all, because if you are, tell him now and break it to him easily!"

"WHAT? It's not that at all, and it's not even your business what it is!"

"Isn't it?! You are our responsibility!" Suzanna yelled "And when we took you in, I promised that orphanage we'd take care of you and make you into something great and brilliant. And I'd be doing Santana – my flesh and blood – a disservice if that didn't happen!"

"Yeah? Well you haven't yet – you might if you keep up!" the fiery young Fox spat as she hauled the suitcase up the stairs to her room in anger.

Slamming her bedroom door, Carmelita sat among her space taking in her moment of solitude, before the storm she planned to bring. She looked aside to her clock, she saw that her moment had lasted for half an hour, much to her surprise. She picked up the DVD that she took from Voyra's caravan and ran through the images again, trying to grab an image of the Hyena that was there – Jame. She then found one: in the moments that Voyra kept the camera rolling after her families' execution. There he was, in the backseats of the gangs Bentley. His face stared into the camera, twisted with simple enjoyment of what had just happened but without the intelligence of Enrico or Winstone or even Voyra to display it. This man looked truly like a servant of Satan himself. Carmelita nodded in resolve, as she was going to bring ALL of them down. A knock on the door shook her resolve slightly.

"Come in" she hollered, after calmly closing down the DVD playing. She looked to the door, ready to blast the person who entered her room with defensive, forceful explanation. Instead the person walking through the door was the one who deserved a proper explanation- Crits, her supportive boyfriend.

"Hi" she sheepishly said.

"Carm…why'd you do that – what is going on? You'd never do anything just by yourself, let alone go on holiday for a week" Crits looked as innocent and confused as ever "If there is another man…whatever he's like…I'll be better than him from now on"

"Crits, there's no-one I could love closer than you. What's going on is just complicated. You know when you have commitments to your work that must be met, but then time corrupts your feelings for them: you don't know which your biggest commitment is anymore, or if your biggest commitment is for the right reasons. Well…that's been happening for a while…"

"That doesn't answer me – is there another man?"

"No…not at all" She said straight-faced and caring. She leaned in and kissed him, concreting that promise "I just can't tell you. I'm almost certain this story happens in high-concept revenge dramas or stuff that"

"You lost me at 'almost certain' Carm"

She breathed in again to explain. She then realised that she didn't seem able to say as much as Crits was able to understand, so she took Crits in her arms and just laid on the bed with him, with the image of Jame emblazed into her brain.

Suzanna sat up in her bed straight and tense: she was angry and curious, just as much as Aaron was, but it wasn't consuming his moments before he faded to sleep. Suzanna had been sleep depraved since 1997, back in her clinical psychologist before she re-specified to child psychology. The case of Enrico Conte is what sickened her to that…

_She sat in the cold and dead interview room were she sat straight across from her patient. Enrico Conte: the infamous kingpin of Mano del Diablo was finally arrested, and the police office was in a celebratory mood that they could, and surely will, bring one of the worlds most despicable crime lords into a prison cell for the rest of his days. The circumstances however were bizarre and unusual: during a very violent robbery of the Spanish National Bank in which thousands of Euros was stolen by Enrico, Jame his mute and savage cohort, Silver his m his mute and savage cohort, Silver his mysterious masked enforcer and a small army of Tiger guards. Silver, Enrico and all but two of the Tiger guards made it with the haul back to the getaway van, but Jame and two of the Tigers guards were hit with Batons and knocked to the floor as police crowded upon them, as Jame threw the two men off his back before another two got on him to cuff him. At the moment of Jame's cuffing, Enrico emerged from the car threw his gun to the floor with the safety on and called out "Why take pawns when you can take the king and win. I surrender to you" The crowd turned in bewilderment and then joy as the cuffs were placed on him, ready to be taken to a holding cell for a psyche evaluation and the sentencing a week later. Suzanna slammed the file down on her desk. She turned to see if any officers were outside her room, and turned off the therapists camera used to tape the sessions. She, filled with disgust and anger, struck her fist out at him, causing a cut along his cheek._

"_That is for my sister, and her family you killed back in 1993, you scum-sucking piece of diseased skin. You won't get the death penalty for what you did, but I'll assure you, you will suffer in…"_

"_I killed your sister? Seriously Doctor, big deal!" Enrico coldly stated "I've killed dozens of people in organised killings and even more in collateral damage. Your sister and her family is a tear in the rain of havoc I caused" The Mexican twinge of his accent seemed like a bit of familiarity to Suzanna, who'd dealt with violent Latin American gangs in the past like the Mala Noche. The truly terrifying part of his voice was the British articulation of each syllable – it made the voice alien and confusing to her. He leaned forward on the desk "And I am FULLY aware of what I may be facing. After all, I'm only here right now in his room with no handcuffs on and no resistance at all – the most effective resistance being an abusive psycho therapist with anger management issues, not a good mix by the way – is because I chose to surrender myself to the police. What's your diagnosis on that Doctor?_

_Suzanna looked stunned "I would view you as insane"_

"_NO YOU DON'T! You should know I'm completely sane, but your tiny brain – yours and your colleagues – find it comforting to think I'm insane. It makes you think that you could never descend to my depraved 'diseased' ways. Am I right?"_

_Paused…_

"_AM I RIGHT DOCTOR?!"_

"_If you know so much Enrico…you tell me!"_

_He smiled a big gleaming smile, but said nothing. Suzanna picked the report back up._

"_Enrico…Benjamin Conte. English mother and Mexican father, born in South London in 1966. Only child to the couple, immigrated to Spain in 1980…alone? Where were your parents during this time?"_

"_Gone. And no, they didn't abandon me; I was too precious to them to experience that. All you need know is that they were gone"_

"_They were good folk?"_

"_Completely. Loyal mother and father, wife and husband is what they were. Hard to believe I came from them huh? Nature over nurture is what you'd called it I guess"_

"_I'm here to psycho-analyse you Enrico. What I'm not here to do is have a discussion regarding my career choice"_

"_And I'm here because I wanted to be"_

_Enrico stood up from his chair and started freely walking around. Suzanna tensed up her arms, as the slim and silver-haired Iguana strutted around the room like a Peacock with his plumage "Tell me why, after a highly successful bank robbery where there were some witnesses to my crimes…"_

"_Highly successful? The police had two of your Tigers guys and that Hyena thing pinned to the floor in handcuffs!"_

"_Do you mind?" Enrico's smiled twisted slightly "Explain why after that, I would get out of the car, hold my hands up, and let you clip me? You think I have a bondage thing going on Doctor?"_

"_No…you don't strike me as the submissive type" She took notes of this. Then she swallowed before speaking once more to the sinisterly eerie gangster. She switched the camera back on at this time too "According to all the notes I've taken in this session Mr. Conte, you appear both clinically and legally sane. Your crimes are a simple indulgence of passion for hurting others, but you being a sadist doesn't make you a sociopath and even if you were either that doesn't make you insane. I shall send this report to the courts for evidence in your trial tomorrow. Do you any further questions to ask on camera?_

"_Yes. First of all, would you like to hit me again Doctor? Or nurse me back to health the way you in your loveless, childless marriage could only dream of?" He asked, his eyes piercing the very bits of her brain that seemed easy to disturb "Do find it scary how a man like me would put himself in jeopardy for the sake of those who mean more than a little to him – something people like you would do? And my final question is…may I please phone my attorney?"_

"_You can't have an attorney Mr. Conte – you and your friends' trial is tomorrow!"_

"_I think, given my situation, a bit of legal advice may go far in these moments, eh?" He slanted his head to look at her. Her eyes flashed red, and the camera went off once more, her fists clenched, and Enrico placed his hands in his pockets whilst clenching his own fists to make an audible crunch from his knuckles clicking. She sent her foot into his crotch, which is only time the madman was ever sensed to be in any pain at all. Her fists were then flying, all whilst Enrico kept his hands in his pockets not even attempting a block as every bruising hit landed on his body. Exhausted finally after the barrage of assaults she stood up, looking down on him._

"_YOU…" She began "I read your recorded crime record when making this profile. All of it – the kidnapping and mutilation of the Spanish prince, your attacks on reporters and their families who communicated what you were up to, and all murders including Santana and her kids – made me sick to the core. The Fiendish Five didn't have anywhere near your vile streak Enrico! And your sanity only makes me feel worse. When your sentence is carried out, I'll see that only enough for you in a glass jar on the courts mantle is left, as an example of dirt we helped to sterilise! And to answer your questions, yes I'd like to hit you much more. No, my marriage is not loveless. And yes you can have your phone call. Oh, and don't complain about brutality or something: I can just say you did it to yourself to escape prison time. See, I have a handle on evidence and I'll see you down" She charged out the room with her report, as Enrico stood up and brushed the dust off his otherwise crisp white suit, opened his golden cigar case and lit it with his golden zippo. He looked at the door "What evidence Doctor Fox?" He said to himself with quiet glee._

_Suzanna Fox stood happy this morning, looking over the packed courtroom, the greying goat judge donned her wig and handled her hammer to pass judgement on the four men in the dock: Enrico, Jame and the two Tiger henchmen captured at the robbery of the Spanish royal bank. "ALL RISE!" was called, and all except for Enrico rose to the judge. The police constable on his back hauled him to his feet, after which Enrico simply straightened out his suit. The list of crimes was read…and then the judge had a whisper in her ear. She stood up, as Enrico smiled and put his arm around the smiling Jame._

"_According to my informer here, all the evidence for this case has been destroyed in a fire at the police station"_

_Suzanna's smile vanished, as Enrico's erupted all over his smug purple face._

"_In light of these events, this trial will be dismissed. The accused are free to go"_

_Suzanna's mind kept echoing "GO!" at this moment…_

Back in the moment in the bedroom, Suzanna laid down next to her sleeping husband. However, the word "GO!" still kept ringing in her head…

At the port in Vigo, near to where Carmelita's place was, a bi-plane landed expertly at the port under the cover of blackness. It turned around in a beautifully executed rainbow-esque arc. As it docked, the door opened, and Jame stepped out, armed with nothing but a hacksaw and a sealable plastic bag, to accomplish the task his master and boss had set to him – killing the bug in the system of their operations, and bringing her head to him. As he drew into the dock that was all under darkness, he found one rotted out boat shelter and kicking the door down to make a shelter for the night whilst he tracked down for his target…he'd seen her image. He could only imagine how sweet her flesh would taste…producing a street map of the Vigo town, and cross-comparing where Voyra was filming when he was attacked, he realised the most low profile place to kill her would be at the gymnasium that she goes to nearly every day. Jame smiled at the thought of his potential meal in his mouth, and it watered so…

**Vigo, Spain, 3rd April 1999**

Carmelita saw Crits out of her front door, and the two looked out underneath the morning sun.

"You know, last night when I asked you what was going on, you were speaking in very mumbo-jumbo terms. Can you better explain now, or do you still not want to talk about it?" He asked.

"Nah, it's nothing. We'll leave it till later. I'll see you after I come back from the gym. I may be there all day though so don't be doing anything too lengthy or something". The pair had become so accustomed to their relationship that they rarely kissed in public anymore – just like a married couple essentially. Instead, their eyes met and their gaze became intimate enough to feel like a kiss. Smiling, they both left down the front path of the house, with Crits returning to his own house and Carmelita walking her own way to the gym…as Jame watched on from the trees, observing his prey's movements for attack…

Carmelita entered the gymnasium, dressed in her instantly recognisable normal daywear. The person behind the checkout of the place knew her face immediately and let her through straight away.

Up among the pummel horses and high-wires, she felt right at home. Looking around in her space, she took in a breath, and ran until the felt like the breeze blowing over the ocean. Launching a full meter above the high-wires, she pushed out her feet to catch the wire and swing underneath like an elaborate logic puzzle mechanism, and as she hurdled to the floor from up high, she held out her legs once again to come down landing perfectly on her feet. Looking up, she smiled.

An hour after Carmelita's entrance, the gymnasium owner looked up to see a visitor he definitely hadn't seen before…a huge hulking Hyena, dressed with a combat belt that stretched across his shoulder and around his waist, that only held a huge serrated knife, some small ties on hooks and a plastic bag – the ties being what he would use to hold Carmelita down as he sawed the bits be wanted to eat off, to keep the blood from letting and decreasing the taste of the food. The bag was for the head. As he marched in, the staff all raised to their heads to stare in terror and confusion. The massive brute approached the desk, and whilst he gleamed his shining and sharpened teeth, brought a picture of Carmelita to the checkout worker, his claws tapping on her eyes in the shot to create perfect pinpoints holes through them. Looking up at the worker, he smiled once again.

"She…" the worker begun "I can't tell you anything without a proper consent"

Jame took the man's collar in his claw, his full face of teeth edging nearer to the foolish man.

"OK, that is consent! She's in the gymnasium…please don't hurt me"

Jame slammed him back against the wall behind him, and the man ached in pain. Another employee pressed the fire alarm, but Jame leapt at her, her head in his teeth gnawing and crushing at visitors and staff all ran away screaming from the strange monster.

Carmelita had just started changing heard the alarm, and looked up annoyed.

"Curses! Can't I just catch a break? For once, it would be nice"

She pulled her blue leather trousers on – she skipped the jacket for now, (it was only standing outside) – and walked towards the exit. Standing in-front of it was the face she'd spent the previous night – the face of Jame, Enrico Conte's pet of destruction. He was smiling and holding a huge serrated knife in his hands, ready to attack.

"Hi Jame" Carmelita said calmly "Thanks for saving me the bother of coming to you. Possibly the kindest thing you've ever done for someone eh?"

Jame didn't respond; he was only able to increase the amount he salivating as he gripped the knife in his hand even tighter. Then, just like a greyhound launches out of the trap at the start of a race, Jame launched at Carmelita, who raised her pistol at him, and sending many shots his way, but each one was dodged, as the thundering mount of muscle and teeth came after her. In a panic, she turned and ran back into the changing rooms, hoping to stop him and give some distance between the pair.

Inside the room, thinking quickly, she hurriedly yanked a pipe off the wall and tried to wrap it around the door handles as Jame begun aggressively pounding on the door to try and get in. Thinking even quicker to try and swing the odds, she ran into the shower rooms and all of the showers onto full pressure, causing steam to full all the room and making all vision nearly impossible. Throwing her signature yellow jacket onto a pair of hooks for a distraction, she took cover in the shower room, and waited…

BANG!

The door flew off the hinges and the bloodthirsty monster hulked in, and leaped right at Carmelita's hung-up jacket, laying his claws on it…but he felt it was empty! Turning around, he saw the bullets from the pistol coming at his face, but the strong Hyena grabbed the row of hooks off the wall and wrenched them off, swinging it in one swift motion that intercepted all the bullets from Carmelita gun. Throwing the hooks at Carmelita, she shot it down, but wasn't fast enough for stop Jame making another leap at her! Dropping to the floor like a rock, Carmelita watched as Jame launched straight past her and into the back wall – the force which he hit it slightly crumbling the wall, but Carmelita quickly issued a couple of hard kicks to the back of the man's head and he yelped slightly in pain, before finally having the room to turn and punch Carmelita to the floor. Looking around, she scurried on her back towards the door, making her way to her feet and running the gymnasium performance room…with Jame in hot pursuit of her.

Entering into the room, Jame decided to adopt a different attack to catch his enjoyably agile prey. He pulled the knife from his belt, and he threw it – like a dart, aiming for her chest. She turned however, and dived down once more as the knife soared past her as it embedded itself in the wall. However, then Jame decided to deliver his finishing attack: he placed his foot on the down Carmelita, and trapping her there. He then took her throat in his claws, pulling her across the floor to the knife, pulled it out of the wall. He put the blade to her throat, and smiled immensely…before wailing in pain from the cross-ranged shot of a shock pistol bullet in his leg. Falling to the floor, Carmelita issued one final measurement to the huge man-eater: a swift kick to face. As Jame lay unconscious, Carmelita started breathing erratically: in her quest for justice/family/country, she'd nearly been eaten by a huge freak of nature. But she'd survived…and she smiled and laughed.

Jame finally woke with his arm tied to the huge metal climbing pipes behind him – near the wall where he'd put his knife in the wall. He pulled and tugged at it but he wouldn't get the ropes, or the thing he was tied to, to budge. He panted heavily and violently, only stopping when Carmelita pressed the cold yellow barrel of her shock pistol to the back of his head.

"OK Savage. I'm gonna ask a couple of yes and no type of questions. With the others it wasn't necessary as they actually had brains to say what the case was with everything. With you, I'll have to go Kindergarten on your butt. You copy, Jame?"

The huge Hyena begrudgingly nodded.

Carmelita relaxed the pistols mark on his skull, stepping back as the free arm flailed out at her.

"For yes, you nod. For no, you shake your head from side to side" She engaged the Hyena's intense gaze, until he gazed to his arm, tied by the ties on his combat belt, and then submitted to her power. "How'd you get to Vigo from your base? Was it a Train? Boat? Plane?"

Jame nodded at plane.

"OK, plane. Good good good" She smiled "Since you don't have a passport on your person…I'd guess a personal plane or a bi-plane?" She asked to another nod from Jame.

"Is it docked at the Vigo port?" Another nod.

"And Enrico sent you from his base to kill me? You have the route planned out each way?" Another nod.

"Snap!" She triumphantly declared. She then leaned over the disgusting monster that stood before her "Now…you were going to kill me, that was a definite but…was I to be eaten by you as well? Or had you not decided which part you wanted" Jame looked at her, eyes passing over her figure (possibly the first time for him using selective thought) and he nodded "Well, today I am off the menu Jame. Now, I am going to get you and him for my family – you remember them? Great people who deserved more time than you gave them? Whatever you and Enrico had planned for this country – 'the Devil's Eden', whatever it was – can be indefinitely cancelled. And I'm going to be the one to cancel it! For my parents and my brothers, I swear by it!"

Jame's eyes turned bright red.

"Do you like what you've done with your life? What Enrico has made you into?"

Jame nodded. And then he turned and roared at Carmelita, forcing her back, so he could try to reach for the knife…his scurrying claws edging nearer to the leathered handle of the blade. Edging ever nearer, they finally took hold, and Jame's smile opened up once more, as he took the knife and started using the serrated edge of the blade to cut through the ties. He was struggling though so Carmelita took another shot at him with the pistol, but the monster was still able to move and dodge her firing. Still struggling, Carmelita had a new plan…she looked at the high-pipe structure that was held into the wall at the corners with strong screws and bulkheads to prevent it falling. Carmelita didn't want to break the place she trained at, but taking the circumstances into consideration it was justifiable, as she opened fire on the top-left, bottom-left and bottom-right corners of the structure, breaking the screws and causing the structure to rock. The ties soon broke however, and Jame was free and bloodthirsty. Wielding the knife, he stood strong. Carmelita held the pistol to him out straight, waiting for the moment to fire, but Jame charged along regardless. Coming in, faster, faster…his knife raised as he approached. As he came on the ground very quick, Carmelita leaped over him, firing bullets as she passed overhead. Once again however, no bullets landed on Jame's body. Landing again, Jame threw his knife – this time though the throw wasn't good: it just hit the floor. Carmelita leapt to it, just ahead of the running Jame, grabbing the knife and bringing it up…the knife made serious contact with Jame's arm. Carmelita looked in horror as the knife embedded itself in his arm, causing the mad Hyena to wail sadly and madly in pain. Jame hunched over, whilst Carmelita held her gun to him.

"OK Jame. Let's go to the hospital – let's get you fixed. You can't do anything in that state! Jame – you need help. A lot of it"

Jame, ignoring her advice, took a tie from his belt, and held the blood in his wound tight with the binding, and he pulled the knife from his arm…which caused the whole limb to dangle loose from his body like a terrible ragdoll with broken stitching. Enraged more than ever, Carmelita looked on as he dived on with one useful arm, but instead he barrelled uselessly towards the huge climbing structure as Carmelita looked at him from a safe distance.

"Jame…I'm sorry for you" Was all she could say.

The final bulkhead shattered as it was shot with a shock pistol bullet. Jame could just look up as the huge frame fell on him…

BANG!

Carmelita scrambled through the wreckage to try and find him. There he was, eyes bloodshot and red, his fur blood-soaked…just like Santana's fur from when Carmelita was little. Their faces again flashed before her eyes. Shaking those images out of her mind, she pulled his arm to try and get him out, only for it to come out of his socket! He made no sound though, so Carmelita could tell he was gone. She contained it in the sealed plastic bag he kept on his combat belt, additionally deciding to fish in his pockets till she found what she wanted – the keys to a bi-plane…the manner in which he made it from Enrico to here, and the way she was going to get him!

Scouting the dock, she came across the disintegrating boat shelter in the port that Jame stayed in the night before…and there was the plane. Carmelita could only smile…stashing the arm in the plastic bag inside the plane, she was ready for tomorrow. She had blueprints of Enrico's warship, and of the security systems for his base…yes…six years of waiting for revenge was about to be made so…

Carmelita showed up through the door…Suzanna was staring at her, as was Aaron.

"Carmelita…what have you been doing?" Aaron said. To Suzanna's surprise, he was even angrier than she was "Because we've got a pretty good idea of what's been eating you up. We found this in your room…and painful as it, was we watched it!" He was holding up the CD containing Voyra's footage, and Carmelita felt anger and fear rush over her. "You know, one of the men in this video was violent beaten and attacked earlier in the year – Voyra. He was beaten and battered till his head was numb, and he claims to have no memory of his attacker though. I took two and two though, and me and your aunt came up with the fact that you saw him at your competition, stalked him and beat him, then stole this CD!"

"You have no right to go in my room. That's my private property!"

"Me in your room is the least of your worries" Aaron turned to Suzanna. "You and Suzanna know one of the people in this video all too well…the 'Hellspawn' himself, Enrico Benjamin Conte. I've only heard about him in passing whispers and I'm scared. Whatever you are, if not scared, worries me so much Carmelita"

Suzanna stood up "If it weren't for the fact you were family, and given your father's ideas of the law, we'd report you to the police for theft and assault and battery. But we have a better proposition. A complication in Enrico's first trial meant all his own crimes we can't charge him for, but a new crime we can charge him with – attempted murder…YOUR attempted murder! Give us a testimony, then we can open up an international manhunt for the guy; attempted murder isn't as much time inside as he deserves but…"

Carmelita looked up "What do you mean by complication?"

"He…rigged his phone to self-destruct if a code was spoken into it. The day before his trial he set off the explosion when…I…allowed him that phone call to his 'attorney'. All collected evidence was destroyed and him and the others members of _Mano del Diablo_ he put himself on trial were let off" He looked at Carmelita "Please…I think on that every day, for my sake Carmelita, help us bring him to justice"

"If I knew enough to help you Aunt and Uncle, I would. But I don't so I won't"

Suzanna slammed her fists down on the table, her eyes glowing red.

"Do you KNOW who you're messing with?! Everything in the papers on him was the tip of the iceberg. Did you know that he kidnapped the only Prince of Spain, and told his father to usurp the throne or his boy would be hurt, and when the ransom wasn't paid, the boy was injected with chemicals to leave him sterile?" Carmelita took it all in "There's more: he made an internet broadcast for the death of one of his henchmen who failed him on a job, and then showed him feeding the dying man to his cohort 'Jawbreaker' Jame Jones? He murdered many rich families and embezzled all of their funds directly to an offshore account? And did you know that when I did his psychological evaluation for trial, he was sane?"

Aaron added "If you did this…Enrico would get what he deserves…"

Carmelita now became fully angry "You want me to do this for your peace of mind and nothing more – Enrico Conte deserves something that the courts can't give him. But I want nothing to do with your vendetta Aunt!"

"Carmelita, your family he killed was mine too!"

"I watched, therefore it's different! You can't equal to that no matter how hard he tried" She held her gun out at the guardians. She simply said "I want my space…leave me alone"

Crits was walking down the lane, flowers in hand, when he saw Carmelita, dressed full in the blue trousers and the leather jacket, marching angrily and full of power in the direction of the docks. He ran after her trying his best to keep up. She disappeared into the disintegrating garage and Crits too kept up with her. She opened the bi-plane doors – the bi-plane was significantly longer than the average bi-plane, with visible back seats. But that wasn't the main thought that was crossing Crits' mind; the main one is what was on Carmelita's mind regarding this plane, and what the plan was. She had both doors open, as she checked the full gauge on the side. Crits sneaked in on the door to the far side of her, and lay on the backseat, waiting for Carmelita to get back in and start on her journey.

**Mexico City, Mexico, 3rd April 1999**

The moon shone out over Enrico's base. Enrico and Silver stood outside in the town, the warm night pair engulfing the pair as they stood in close. Enrico puffing on his cigarette embodied the look of kingpin he was famous for, and Silver stood in his body armour like a strong totem pole. Soon Enrico noticed a shape interrupt the moon's straight beam…a silhouette of a large bird with glowing yellow eyes and sparking armour. Enrico saw the incoming bird and took a step back, along with Silver. Stabbing out the cigarette on his hand, he looked as the huge creature landed on his base's large open space. The bird – all metal in design – was known as Clockwerk, and not too many people in the world knew who he was. However, Enrico and Silver were two of them.

"Enrico Conte" The monster's voice grated "There's rumour about of a…operation you have planned. It sounds remarkably enticing to my purpose"

"Clockwerk, your reputation precedes you. It always has. And for the record, you have taken a foolish move in landing at a base occupied by the most dangerous gang on the planet UNINVITED at midnight! Purpose…shingles have a purpose, you have a paper-thin motive"

The owl marched on Enrico, lifting his claw to his throat.

"Listen…to…my…offer, Enrico. Words travel fast, and the organisations you do business with have told me they may as easily have told others"

Enrico walked away from the claws point, whereas Silver stayed still under the circumstances. Removing his white suit jacket, the straight egg-white coloured shirt that Enrico wore rippled with his physique, not that Clockwerk could be scared, as he was three times the size of the average man.

"Clockwerk…you are merely a thief who offers technology to criminal gangs so you can take credit for their hard graft. Silver there has made the technical advances, Winstone did the recruitment, Jame disposed on anyone I didn't need and I masterminded all…you have NOTHING to contribute."

"Oh I do…Your operation may require extra support. I've constructed a death ray to use for government blackmail. If you'd allow me, I could use it to prevent any political action whilst you overtake Spain…"

"And have _Mano del Diablo_ is your back pocket?" Silver inferred

Enrico shook his head. "No way is that happening. You and your gang, the Fiendish Five, have been nothing but the maniacal following of a monster with a serious hate complex"

Clockwerk laughed "You moralistic moron! Don't forget, I slain the only man who ever eluded you and your knives so that makes me better!"

Enrico now started to undo his shirt to completely show off his ripped torso that was both broad and toned "I didn't fail to kill Connor Cooper…I spared his life: true he did steal one of my prized guns from my possession and then used it to keep my group at bay during the robbery of the Golden Crest in Dublin in '89, but he kept up his family traditions regardless of his own personal feelings. My respect for that is unequivocal. I love family. I slaughtered many, but they died together – the way it should be. The fact you killed a man I chose not to not make you better: it makes you more ruthless"

Clockwerk turned his eyes to follow him "And you think that you're better than me for that?"

The loud sounding of Tigers priming their shock pistols from the tops of the building surrounding the large owl was like a single loud audible click.

"Yes, it does" Enrico said. He walked to Clockwerk relighting a cigar "Now Clockwerk, these guns ammo won't hurt you but they'll open up holes in your shell till you are like a sieve, and then me and Silver there will stab those holes till your strength is all depleted. Then we'll chain you and dump you at the bottom of the sea. The salt water will go into those holes and you'll hurt for weeks. _Me entiendes, punky trenzado enfermo?_" He stubbed the cigar out on Clockwerk's claw. The owl leaned down, staring into the Iguana's face, the beak snarling with anger.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

The guns all fired off, and Clockwerk's skin was indeed pierced with holes, to his confusion.

"What are those guns?" He cried.

"They are the source of my becoming!" Enrico cheered, as he took the two serrated knife blades from the back of his trousers, and threw them straight at the owl's huge eyes. The owl howled underneath the moon like the great monster he was identified as. Enrico smiled as the owl struggled. "Second warning Clockwerk" The owl blindly lunged his claws at Enrico, only for Silver to turn-up and grab the claw with one hand. Clockwerk pushed against the heavily armoured man, but there was no movement that he could make. Clockwerk laughed at Enrico and Silver.

"Thank you for letting me leave. Next time, I will have you…"

"Are you still here?!" Silver yelled, pushing Clockwerk back as he toppled over, hurrying to his claws and then flying off into the distance.

Silver and Enrico walked back to the main office of operation, victorious against the idle threat of a maniacal bird. Enrico looked out the window, waiting for Jame's plane to come in with Carmelita's severed head…even if it was delayed, the countdown to war was at T-Minus forty-eight hours…


	8. Carmelita Faces Enrico and Silver pt1

_**Sly Cooper: Vida La Carmelita**_

**Jame's Plane, 3rd April 1999**

Carmelita stared outwardly straight ahead, only infrequently turning her head away from the sky to look at Jame's map inside the plane that would lead eventually lead to Enrico's base. Behind her, Crits sat crunched up underneath the seats to stay out of view; even though he much like the plane they were both flying in in that sense, as in spite of its solid construction that barely scratched or damaged there was a copious amount of unseen turbulence going on directly underneath them shook the plane as it made its journey towards Mexico City. To avoid the risk of deep vein thrombosis, Crits made a movement to allow the blood to flow through his system. As he did, he made a noise – a very loud rustling on the plane's cheap carpet base that sounded like static moving over a badly knitted fleece. Crits froze still, as the silence-piercing rustling stayed still too. Carmelita heard the noise and looked up, like the fox she was to the wind, pulling a concerned and confused face as she looked back to see no-one directly sat on the seats – Jame's arm in the bag was locked firmly away in one of the overhead compartments and his belt only sat on the back seats. The rustling remained away...but then in came again, from almost underneath Carmelita's seat. Reaching forward for the Auto Pilot button, she felt for her gun on the front seat, as a commercial airliner flew on past alongside the small military machine in the sky.

Looking back over her shoulder, she saw a body right underneath her chair curled up to fit as well as he could underneath. Taking her trusted gun, she took the safety off and held the barrel to the body underneath her space, noting that it was warm and therefore not a prior kill made by Jame.

"Hey you, what are doing down there? There's nothing on this plane I'm letting you take." She poked the body for movement "I have a gun here that fires pure plasma, and it's pointed at you so you better get up now and tell me what you're doing here before I go downtown on you!" her Latin accent crackled with force as she snarled that threat. Her voice soon became high-pitched and dry, however, when she saw the face of Crits look up at her from the floor.

"What are you doing here? I didn't even see you at home!"

"I was on my way there Carm! I saw you run to the dock so I followed. Whatever's going on, you now HAVE to tell me…"

"Have to tell you? Tell you what I've said the last few weeks – that this business must involve me and me alone. I guess it's too late for that eh? Damn you Crits – damn you for getting involved!"

"Involved in what?"

Carmelita breathed in, her heart and her words filled with venom she once only left for _Mano del Diablo_, but that she now held for everyone nearly.

"OK…"She breathed heavily "I found them"

"Found who Carm?"

"I found the men who killed my family – the men from the _Diablo_. The first one was in Vigo at the gymnastics competition I won, and he gave me details of the others. I hunted them down, and I now I'm going find Enrico Conte and I'll turn him into a carpet stain"

Crits sat on the floor, dumbstruck as Carmelita continued to steer the plane on the course of action she was destined forever to take – taking down global criminals.

"Carmelita…" Crits began "The reason we all got involved is we know how much this means to you; it means the same for the whole world to see Enrico Conte go up in flames, but vigilantism isn't…"

"Are you telling me to give up on this – to let the world bring Enrico down? I'm sorry Crits but the world failed: the police failed to get him those years ago, and what's going on now is more important than anything ever before for the world. Trust me on that"

"Are you doing this for them or for yourself then? And if you are doing this for them…why not help them?"

Carmelita looked straight ahead to focus on the sky ahead of her…partly to see where she was going, but mostly because she didn't have an answer to Crits' question.

On the plane that flew alongside the small military vessel, a small lavender coloured mouse looked out the window, barely a child able to comprehend the mechanical mastery of the machine. The small girl pressed her face to the plane's glass window until her breath misted it up in her wonderment. Her tiny fingers and big eyes beheld the marvel of engineering go past, and then her father's voice ran smooth like honey into her ears.

"Penelope? You see something outside you like?"

"Yes Daddy – that plane, like the ones you fly back home"

"But Penelope, those planes are just like these ones only bigger, and they carry more people. The ones I fly back in Amsterdam are just little past times for me. And they aren't completely safe you know"

"But it's so great watching you fly them. One day I will be a dogfighter like you, I promise. I'll be the bestest in the world"

The big pink Mouse sat with a big smile filled with perfect white teeth, but over the top of his upper lip was a moustache that rivalled shrub bushes for its thickness and prickliness. The brown of it was like lead, but that contrast with his smile only seemed to make it welcoming – a bizarre contradiction.

"Penelope, my darling; fruits of my love. I understand that you're a person who wants what she wants. You have to understand that not everything is meant for you, you can't have it all, not yet anyway. Maybe you'd prefer to one day pilot something like this plane – be in charge of all those lives and keep them safe. I'm an Engineering company owner in my own time, but a pilot on my dime. I'm a high flying businessman in charge of my employees and my daughters before all else. If you want to go on and be a pilot before all else then I commend you for it: after all, you do have the brains for it eh?" He rubbed his daughter lovingly on the head. He looked back to him, smiling sweetly, her short bright blonde hair covered by the bandanna that seemed to forever enforce her youthful appearance. She looked back at the world low beneath her – secretly almost feeling like a god as she looked down on the world below. She liked this feeling of being up high. One day, she'd be higher than everything…until then, she'd dream of the piloting days of her father. He smiled at her innocent face that showed nothing but an extravagant dream…the notice of appreciation for her father then came, as another passenger on the plane turned around just in front of Penelope and her father, and noticed his face.

"Hi" said a shy Chameleon lady, who'd turned slightly red in front of him "Are you Eddie Van Mouse? Sorry, but I'm a big fan of your piloting and design. It's…it's…" she began to stammer with nervousness from being in his presence.

"Yes my dear I am. Although I prefer President Van Mouse of EVM Mechanics personally" She laughed as this title, her nervousness gone. Penelope just thought she looked lovely with her blushed pink skin that although would change constantly to the mood looked attractive enough. One day she may get a female role-model she'd been craving after her mother left and her sisters moved out many years prior. Although, secretly, her pilot father would always be the biggest influence on her. No matter how hard the pretty little Chameleon would try, the chance that it would be her changing Penelope's life and mind would never happen. After all, they were nearly back at Holland and the days of watching Eddie Van Mouse fly in his ace set of flying machines in home skies were near. She looked up, and could see the Chameleon and her father exchange a gentle slow kiss on the lips. At first, she felt a flash of annoyance at the Chameleon for being so…quick. But soon, that flash fizzled out and she only felt happiness.

Carmelita stayed in silence as Crits looked on, unable to really comment on her painful bloody memories that were encased in cold air. Crits leaned forward finally able to find something to say

"Carmelita…you remember you told me about that song you used to sing to Santiago – your youngest sibling? Sweet Dreams, by the Eurhythmics? You told me no matter how badly you sung it he'd still look up to you and you'd make his whole world feel great again. Well this is me telling you to abandon this destructive quest for those sweet dreams. 'Some of them want to use you; some of them want to get used by you. Some of them want to abuse you; some of them want to be abused'. You see Carm: there's more life around the corner if you just let it go"

"Crits…if I give up now, my family's name will be forever blackened – Diego the brave cop and Santana the beautiful coffee shop businesswoman produced a deadbeat cowardly daughter. Both of them will be reflected on that! Not to mention that I'm the only one who can stop Enrico Conte. You know it, the police know it, and he knows it too. You don't understand the plans he has for first Spain and then the world. He's slime and I'm the garbage truck that he's gonna be taken out by!"

"Would that be your resolve – honour your father, family etc., and then what? I'm worried Carm that you're too far gone!"

The plane started lowering, towards Mexico City

"Shut up Crits" Carmelita snapped completely without affection or warmth "We're landing"

"Where are we landing?"

"If Jame's directions are anything to go by, Mexico City at the base of _Mano del Diablo_. It's been 6 years coming eh Enrico? That's right slime! I've come for you! And even if you ain't ready for me, that won't stop me!" Her face was simple – devastatingly simple – in her promises to her family, and also to Enrico…

The plane touched down, and Carmelita and Crits looked around at the vast and bustling fortress filled with steam and grey and pumping machinery. Tigers hammered and drilled away at a huge bulking machine. Carmelita recognised the design from the blueprints she stole from Winstone's lair as Enrico's warship, carrying the mass of prisoners that Enrico had sourced across of the South American continent for this great moment. In the distance, Carmelita could see Enrico looking over the action from a giant building complex that looked like a bland business block, but up at the top like a penthouse stood the epicentre of _Mano del Diablo's_ functions: a lot smaller than the top floor of the building – presumably to make it more protected from an overhead attack. From where was landed, she could see Enrico with cigar in hand although not dressed in his white suit that she'd seen constantly in his Police profile photos – instead it was a white T-Shirt and blue Jeans that matched the colour of a seemingly tranquil sea, indicating Enrico's possibly presently relaxed state of mind. Next to him stood a huge lumbering giant encased in a silver shell of armour. She remembered what Winstone had sold her: a new man for the gang had assembled everything: Silver – or the Silver Fox as he was otherwise known – was that man…

Carmelita took the blueprints to the boat from under the flight controls of the plane. All of the size for occupancy was displayed as was all the weaponry details. It was fair to say that this was the most perfectly honed military machine assembled, and if it made its way to Spain, the whole country would fall – it would become indeed the Devil's Eden. Looking forward at the large complex ahead of her, she knew the goal – kill Enrico. She made her hands for the door…Crits' hand however took a hold of hers as it held the door handle.

"Carmelita! Call the police, hell, even call Suzanna – the police can use this for putting Enrico away for good! The military can attack this place before that boat ever gets launched! Please stop this, for your sake…for my love's sake." He pleaded.

"But Crits" Carmelita begun "How much I love you is incorruptible" And she took his face in her hands, and neared her face to his, and their lips touched for what felt like a decade…

BANG!

Crits felt unconscious in a flash – which is what Carmelita's head-butt literally was. She then emerged from the plane with her gun in hand, looking forth at the building…

**Mexico City, Mexico, 3rd April 1999**

The area outside the complex was sparsely filled with guards – the majority assigned to prepping the ship for launch, and only Enrico truly knew how long that would be until that ask was accomplished. The complex however would almost certainly made fuller for protection. Looking at the entrance, she decided that's where everything would be the most protected. Around the perimeter she looked for something to give an alternative method for entry…and there, on the right side of the building, she found a dumb waiter style shuttle going down but not up…without thinking about the purpose, she lowered the shelf very, and then flexing herself into a shape that she could easily slide into the shaft, and holding onto the wire, she slid herself down the mysterious method of delivery into Enrico's base.

At the bottom of the dumb waiter, she shelf smashed as Carmelita's landed on top of it as it reached the end of its reach. The noise was like water dropping on a still lake; Carmelita's ears were immediately pricked up to check for any surrounding Tigers to come running in at her…nothing came however. Stepping out, she could see that she'd ended up in the larder – she was surrounded by cigars and large amounts of alcohol in crates. This means of entrance would certainly be less conspicuous than the alternative walking in the front door. The darkly lit room forced her to feel delicately for the stairwell to the door, prodding out with her hand…she couldn't feel anything but any bottles that weren't in crates may be lying about on the floor or placed very close to her on shelves; if she knocked over a wine-rack, that would certainly alert the compound to a security breach. Prodding forward…wood. Ascending in a pattern – this must be the stairwell…stepping forward, she felt this was the way. BUZZ! The step on which her left foot stood zapped with static, and the step shone in the dark…a small security device to electrocute cockroaches and termites maybe…or to zap unwary intruders. Either way, Carmelita's reflexes launched her clear of the step and up to the next four up that was free of such a device. Standing safely, she watched the steps once more – this time to see if indeed the termites would be setting it off and if indeed they were on any more steps. The pulse of which the termites on the floor were walking didn't seem to set any others off, so clearly the device was a surprise for an intruder it seemed. The door was solid wood – clearly this part of the building had been ignored for many years. The door was locked too, tight as well, and to kick it open was something that Carmelita wanted to avoid…feeling her back pockets, she found herself an extra tool – Jame's cutting knife. Pulling the knife from its concealed location, and sliding the serrated edge inside the gap between the door frame and the door itself, pressing down upon the lock bar inside the door and pulling the knife back and forth for a duration in the dark. That duration felt longer from the adrenaline and pumping through her heart. The knife finally cut through the lock and the door opened: the inside of the building showcased a highly decorated interior, with swooping high curtains lining the walls, coloured crimson upon an egg white set of walls. It was indeed a long stretch from the rotting and dusty pest-ridden basement she'd just come from. The interior looked like a Spanish palace. The constantly patrolling guards and searchlights that seeked across the floor of the building gave the indication that this was indeed no such palace…

Crits opened his eyes, groaning as he sat up from the floor of the bi-plane as he clutched the bruise on his forehead. It wasn't easy to tell from where he was, but the Cheetah was suddenly awake. The awareness in his head was steadily returning; inside the base of Enrico Conte and _Mano del Diablo_ – there was no time for messing around, especially as Carmelita was now almost certainly nearing him by now…

Searching the plane tirelessly for anything that could be used for infiltrating the base quickly, fumbling over the floors of the bi-plane to look for something…there it was: a key card with Jame's face on it – it had fallen out of his utility belt when Carmelita had taken it to invade the compound. Crits' face became taught and focused, looking up at the door to the plane and tugging at the handle to try and get it to open smoothly, but Carmelita had locked it. He kept on tugging with the powerful and singular drive an animal has to protect its mate from the incoming dangers of the outside world, pulling many times over but the door stayed put. Looking at the window and raising his shirted arm to it, Crits battered his elbow against the door…again…and again, until the window started to move from its slot sealed into the window. Crits, now rushing with sweat, continued to batter the window free of the door to create a gap perfect for someone of his slimly athletic frame to fit through. Holding the key card nicely in hand, he charged with his pure straight running speed towards the marked complex right in the centre of the gangland base…

Carmelita stood within the complex looking up and down the ways that lead around the giant block. Staying on the ground floor would be very difficult for getting to Enrico due to the amount of security lurking down on the floor. Looking upwards, the chandeliers hung like suspended stepping stones around the security. Looking leftwards and then rightwards to check for incoming security, she leaped up. Stretching out her arm, she took the chain of the chandelier in her hand and held herself from it. Looking right above the action and security, she could see a clear way up to Enrico. Suddenly, an alarm pierced the palace – the guards ran towards the front door of the building in vast droves, as Carmelita watched from above, like a lion looking over the busy plains of Africa…however, she was confused at the buzzing ringing sound that came through the building. Looking around, she tried to see if anything was coming her way, but as she was looking she could feel the chain on the chandelier slowly begin to creak and pull on the ceiling…shaking more and more! Downwards looked a dangerous place to go, and forward was a good line of chandeliers that led ahead high up in safety. Swinging forth, she held out her hand again – once more catching a chandelier…THWACK! A beam of wood flew past her head, splintering on the wall. Carmelita looked down to see a gang of guards had seen her, and filled with glee and joy on their faces readied their weapons to throw in an attempt to fell the intruder, which was easier said than done as the target was moving fast over them – every shot among many coming close until she moved with sharp speed once more. However, Carmelita could see before her what the guards hadn't seen yet…the path of chandeliers over her was thinning out and eventually, they would be gone and she could have to fight on the ground. Panicked she looked at the mass of guards running after her…thinking, she smiled: she leaped upwards and spinning underneath the way only an athlete of her calibre could manage and took some shots from her pistol to shoot at the chains of the previous chandeliers and watched them crash down onto the heads of the guards following her. Looking ahead, she could see the guards becoming less and less…beyond that was a door to what looked like an elevator. She smiled a demented smile as she neared it. The guards in-front of the door however were different to the other Tiger guards – these ones looked like steroid induced storm troopers that could be guessed at nearly twice the size of Carmelita in height and their arms four times the size of Jame's, and instead of simple wooden beams to throw, they literally held tree-trunks in their hands. Carmelita dropped to ground level with the sound of alarms still blaring and rampaging guards following her, she drew her gun and shot at the elevator guards. But this only succeeded in making them seemingly 'active', as they charged on at her angry and furious…the guards from behind approaching still. The unstoppable guards ran on harder (even after Carmelita had leaped over them like the creature of instinct she was) even hitting their colleagues, sending them flying face-first into the wall behind them. Having inadvertently taken out their comradeship alone, they finally turned back on Carmelita. One of them made some faint mumblings – "die" and "surrender" was the only words Carmelita could make out from behind their white and perfect helmets that muffled their caveman grunts – as they charged once more as Carmelita readied her pistol, taking a shot at them both in quick succession as they came in, the shots were strong enough to blow the helmets right off the pair. The monstrous Tigers made a high pitched wailing noise like two babies who'd unintentionally filled their diapers, but the wail continued – they no longer charged, just standing there. Carmelita had no idea what to make of these two overly dramatic henchmen. She looked to the two men she held like should be further incapacitated, then to her gun…then her watch that showed the time she'd wasted dealing with these two, and she ran into the elevator and punched the button that led up to the top floor.

Enrico stood in the huge boardroom, the long table designed to sit 20 potential sitters, looking out the window that overlooked the facility. His white hair remained the same; it was smartly and perfectly combed back, remaining as smart as it was in his white crisp suit as it was in a simple white V-Neck T-Shirt that showed off some of the lighter purple shades on his toned yet old body. Silver alongside him in full shining armour spoke into a voice box that reverberated across the compound:

"Listen up troops! There's an intruder in the main compound, but no matter what no-one leave the boats construction alone – if an intruder gets on that, then the entire plan and its build-up is flushed away. The guards in the main compound can deal with it. Understand that and follow – Silver out!" He took his finger off the coms button and turned to Enrico "What is causing that alarm and why?"

"Maybe a bird flew into one of the radar dishes – caused an over-reaction. Either way I say it's good for those varmints in security to get some practice in defence eh?" He tapped his watch "I am getting tired of all these delays though – there's no proper excuse for the amount of time I've waited to see Spain under my thumb!"

"And it'll make stopping you all better for it, Conti! An apt name I say…" began Carmelita, standing in the door frame to the room that Enrico had made all executive decisions since 1993. Enrico saw her, and immediately his eyes lit up like they had done six years. Silver turned too to face the athletic Fox – tall and potent with muscles like a coiled spring – with her blue tight jeans, blue hair tied in messy curls and her unzipped yellow jacket that showed her wearing a blue crop top that showed just how athletic she really was. Her eyes were the most interesting part of her, shining like polished knives aiming for them both. Silver and Enrico stood admiringly of Carmelita, looking longingly at her.

"Well…daddy's little Princess has made her way here" Enrico slurred "What kept you? Too busy weeping into your fury arm with those weepy brown eyes of yours – your little kid's brother's eyes, eh? Tell me what kept you getting here you little locust!"

Carmelita swallowed at the mention of Santiago by the smiling and gloating fiend that stood in front of her. Returning a smile of her own, she reached into the back of her jacket, and pulled out the bag containing Jame's arm. The blood on it was dried up, as Enrico saw it the way that Carmelita saw her family 6 years ago.

"Well…" she begun showing him the arm in the bag "Someone lent me a hand" Enrico's eyes dried up, and his short teeth ground with his temper. Carmelita held the pistol out firmer at the pair of gangland savages in the room "You know how long I waited for this Enrico? Let me give you an idea – every time over my 6 years throughout a orphanage, two schools and a home in Vigo, every bully and brute who I made whimper like a little hurt dog…I imagined you in the same situation! I imagined you with a broken nose…or with your head stuck in a toilet…"

"You did that to a bully? Kudos to that…"

"Every SINGLE time I did that, I was happy for the moment that I thought it was you in that place. Then I snap out and it's red in my head again. YOU did that to me Enrico Benjamin Conte!"

"Yes well you killed Jame and Winstone didn't you – they were part of my own family. Hypocritical little princess darling…YOU THINK YOU'RE SPECIAL?!" Enrico reached into his back pocket and pulled two knives from behind his back. Silver too readied into a stance to fight, but Carmelita fired a shot at Enrico's left-hand knife, causing it to shatter and splinter away from him "Oh I guess you must be pretty special to kill Jame. You know, I met Jame when we were both penniless and homeless on the streets of Madrid aged 15 – the pair of us. He'd tried to kill me for food when I first met him, but I earned his respect when I helped find us a place to live. Fed him the owner as a gift and since then I was like his older brother, and he was the younger brother I never had. Oh trust me Princess, you are special. I, however, am EXTRAORDINARY!"

"Really? I bet you'll look pretty bog-standard in the ground under 6 feet of dirt"

"Ooooooooo…tough words eh?" Enrico readied his knife "I think you'll find that you and I are quite the reflection of one another Miss Fox. And before you die, you'll see that and your world will crumble like pastry right beneath you"

Silver too readied himself as he saw two Tigers appear in the door right behind Carmelita, their startled expressions quickly turning to composure "Your father wouldn't approve of this vigilante practice at all now, would he?"

"No, but your 'endless' list of victims might! _Usted monstruo ateo_" Carmelita walked forwards, and the Tigers came in from behind with their sticks ready to strike. They advanced but their war-cries alerted the Fox who, being careful not to remove her eyes from the two masters of _Mano del Diablo_ turned on a six-pence, using a roundhouse kick to throw them away. And she returned to view, Enrico was already in her face and his fist impacted it like a meteor, sending her straight to the floor. Lying down and seemingly out, Enrico striked his foot out, first at her face, but as he began to ready for a shot to her abdomen the Fox pushed herself backwards across the floor: using the grips on the bottom of her shoes to push away from her assailants. As soon as she was away – a full 10ft away – and flung herself back up with a ninja style leg kick, Enrico and Silver were upon her; as she prepared to strike out with her gun, Silver hooked her right arm behind her body and as she turned to used her left arm to hit back again he too hooked that one behind her…the way she was now held back resembled a man on a cross. Enrico's fists were now upon her once again – hitting her body with rhythm like a metronome! Enrico devilish smile widened as his fists kept striking…suddenly Carmelita kicked her legs up, straight to Enrico's sternum, taking his breath briefly! In that brief moment, she got her gun pointed at Silver's foot and fired it. The masked enforcer gasped with the shock of the pistol, but he let go of his captive, and Carmelita was now free of the tag-team that they were. Enrico stood ready with his bloody fists held like an expert fighter, and Carmelita – with her bloody face – readied her gun. Looking upwards to where the skylight was, she took a shot at it and the rain of water and glass came pouring down…behind Enrico. He stood, unflinching and laughing.

"You fight a good fight Miss Fox. But you adopted a fighter's stance, whereas the fighter's stance and ways adopted me. You see, we are so alike yet SO different…SUCH FUN!" He glowed as his body struck out once more at Carmelita…before she could even fire he was on her and kicking her legs out from under her. He stared down at her from the floor.

"You see…THE FIGHTER'S STANCE HAS ME!" Silver suddenly appeared and put his foot on Carmelita's gun hand and she was unable to move it "And now little Princess…I have you! For Jame, and you – a little sad sap with a hero's complex and a baby's eyes – thinking you can stop the purity of this organisation…you'll wish I'd killed you those years ago!"

Carmelita, using her free hand to punch out at Silver to free herself, held her fist impact on Silver's heavily armoured shin, and she yelped in agony as her fist clicked with the force of it.

Silver laughed and eerily warm laugh underneath his helmet with modulated voice "Your father would be proud…Princess!" he said. His hand took her by the neck and lifted her full stretched up in the air, suspended like a punch bag.

"Get off you tin-can soldier! I'll break your robot legs off when I get a hold of you!"

"Too bad…" Enrico began "…that we're the ones with a hold on you eh?" He looked to Silver, holding the Fox outstretched and tall with an angry bloodied face like a feral animal. He placed his leg out behind, looked on at the Fox…readied himself…BANG! He launched out a roundhouse kick straight into her abdomen. Carmelita gasped, depleted of air and Silver dropped her like a broken toy…

Looking down at her, he protruded around the officers drawers as Silver kept his foot rested on her back, although since she was still breathless it was redundant. Finally in the desk at the end of the long conference table, he found the two things he was looking for: a pair of handcuffs and a bag of cold chicken legs. Walking back to Carmelita, he clicked the cuffs on her behind her back. Rolling her over, looked at her face, steadily regaining energy. He smiled a smile that showed off his grounded down white teeth, as he looked down at the girl who whilst beaten wasn't defeated yet at all.

"You're regaining your energy. Good! Means you'll be entirely alert for what I'm going to do for you!" He picked up his knife from beside him and moved the knife slowly around Carmelita's throat – she remained stern in expression "Normally I would cut your throat. Maybe I'd give you a couple of fresh cigar burns for a bonus treat. But…you…you killed Jame – that dumb Hyena meant so much to me, you can't begin to understand!"

"If it means anything Conti – I didn't rip his arm off. He did. Yep that sure is dumb"

"Why you little…" THWACK! Enrico hit her one more time. "You two" signalling to the two Tiger guards "Pick her up! So she can see…" They hauled her to her feet, and dragged Carmelita along the width of the room…to the Piranha tank. Silver stood on watching with arms across. On her feet and with a sober head, Carmelita looked on in panic at this situation. Enrico took a chicken leg from his container and dropped it into the tank and marauding fish. Within a second it had vanished. All that was left were bones.

"Little princess…for what you've done, I'll give you the most agonising death one could ever dream of. However, for admiration for to get this close to me and _Mano del Diablo_ it'll be quick – half a minute at the most" He looked for a response from her, but nothing yet came "You know, in the 70's, the President of the states went to the Amazon and was presented with a show by the locals: they pushed a cow into a lake with many of these things. They ate it completely with a few minutes. Cunning and aggressive killers: quite like me eh?" The two Tigers chuckled quietly "Stop laughing, it isn't funny is it?!" Enrico took Carmelita's face and squeezed her cheeks together till they hurt "When I give the word, my boys are going to tip you face first into the tank. The Piranhas will swarm on you, attacking first your eyes, then your ears and then the more fleshly parts of your face till it's stripped bare. You'll die from bleeding out but it'll hurt like nothing you know. While they're eating you alive, I'll be watching them: laughing and smiling because, literally, 'why not'. But before you die, you will understand how alike we are. I…PROMISE THAT!"

"We are not alike! You're a soulless monster, whereas I'm someone avenging those you wronged! There is NO possible similarity!

"Really?" Enrico relaxed his stance…

"_I was 13 years old – same as you were – when I lost my parents. We lived in East London during the 60's and those were rough days to grow up as a teenager. There were gangs – little punks looking to make a quick buck in whatever means they can – and rough kids were all around. I'd promised my parents I'd be home by half 4 but…'extra-curricular' took over, like they do, don't they eh? Me and my mates sat up until midnight drinking and smoking, plotting how to make our way to the top of life. My parents had gone out looking for me a few hours prior, but they'd never found me. There was a car with a broken rear tyre at the side of the road, and my parents – who were the best people you could meet: my father a teacher, my mother a bus-driver – pulled over to help…'a kindness to one is a kindness' to yourself they'd say. It was a con; the local gang was run by a punk Peacock called Joe Reese – a total wussy it turned out, but his followers meant business – had a car stealing operation where they'd steal cars and scrap them for cash. Him and his followers beat my parents to death with the rear axle of the fake car they'd used to lure people over, must have nicked a good few cars over time because when the rozzers found that car it was piled high with other people. I got home that night, slept easy in the morning, then the police informed me and took me to identity them both. A week later, Joe Reese and his gang were arrested for murder and theft – a vehicle they nicked had a broken rear bumper, and when the licence didn't match the cars documentation him and his gang were bought in. I attended his trial…the trial in which he flat out happily admitted his guilt yet pleaded innocence for all of them…making fun of my family lives and the others they took! For some money! Anyways I pulled a gun up in the courtroom – disguised up for protecting my identity – I pulled a gun out and I shot him and his miserable slime ball gang down like the cattle they were always destined to turn out like! Fleeing the court, I made my way to the nearest airport and using what funds my parents had left me, I flew to Mexico and set myself up there from nothing. Family had come to me then gone without a goodbye. Revenge had filled me and gone, leaving me hollow. I found Jame a year after this, but before then, I turned to the crime route of my associates around London had done…and fully devoted to it, I became…THIS! Now look at you Carmelita Fox! Filled with avenging your family who are gone, and soon that'll be gone and you latch onto anything to keep whatever 'soul' you may have left JUST LIKE ME!"_

Carmelita looked on…shocked and sad "Look, I'm sorry for your parents and everything but that still is no reason why we're alike!"

"After your family was gone, you held to revenge because it's what was left. Just like me you see…I held onto crime because after all that it's what I have left, but when I have Spain under rule that'll be my own little family back once more almost eh?" He tensed up his stance again "So you see Carmelita…THAT is why we are alike! It's why I know that you'll never beg for mercy, and I will never apologise for the way you or I are!" At the sound of this statement, Carmelita looked into his eyes, sensing no trace of a lie behind them. Looking inside herself she felt the horror of the truth that Enrico Benjamin Conte was correct in everything he had said and promised "And now that you understand, I'll stick to my promise: you die! Guards, dunk her!"

The Tigers took the struggling Fox, and with one hand under her legs and the other on her shoulder, they tipped her upwards towards the open top of the tank…

"Put her down now!" Came a voice filled with nervousness, yet still had conviction behind it. The Tigers turned around to see a man dressed in the basic battle wear that resembled their own clothes except for one clear detail – the man wasn't a Tiger: he was a Cheetah!

"Crits? Dammit I told you to stay in the plane!" Carmelita said.

"Carmelita I wasn't going to leave you to this. You two there, I said put her down!" Crits continued. He held the stick that most of the other guards simply held, but he wielded it like he meant it.

"Oh this must be your new special someone…" Enrico turned to the guards, who kept holding Carmelita's face a few inches from the water "Is this random boy going to have command over you, or am I? I told you to put her head in the tank – do it, now!"

Without thinking Crits threw the stick out at the Piranha's tank, and the front glass side of the container smashed violently, and the Piranhas flushed out of it, over the feet of the guards. They cried out in pain as the Piranha's made a bite into their feet, right around their legs. In the agony they dropped Carmelita, face down on the floor. She barely gasped, as the pain from that was nothing compared to Enrico's beating, but she still had to struggle back up now. Silver, now alert, begun his run to tackle Crits, who seemed to stand sheepish in the way of the tank oncoming. The silver gleaming Silver impacted on Crits' frame, pummelling him against the wall.

"Oh…Princess' little prince came to save the day. Well done boy – you saved her. Damned you though…" Silver had Crits by the throat, tightening his grip as the body armour he was wearing pumped oil and battery acid exert the massive force that held her. Scrambling on the floor using only the grip on the bottom of her shoes, she worked herself up to her knees as the action continued to erupt around her: the two Tigers aching exhausted from the bites they received on their feet, Enrico with his knife and fists marching on Crits with a purpose, and the hulking mechanical beast Silver holding him there. Crits lashed his leg out once Enrico got in close enough, but the mocking Iguana took a dancing step backwards out of reach.

"Looking at you little Prince…then to the struggling Princess over there…you've done well to get where you're at. Kudos to that for getting someone beautiful as she is" He turned back to see Carmelita struggling back up far too slowly to jeopardise anything "However, the most beautiful things in life are the most dangerous. You like the look of gold at all? There's gold in great quantities in this place – all of my teeth filling are gold too. But this place and my mouth are dangerous places to poke your nose in eh?" His knife continued to dance in the air around Crits as Carmelita further struggled "And you did it for her…how cute" He smiled, moving his maniacal face around at every angle the eye can see, so now his golden Molars were visible in his face, adding horror to his already grounded-down teeth. Enrico looked up to Silver, unaware that whilst it was taking longer than first thought Carmelita was once again at her knees, and steadily took full stance. Looking around the floor for a key to use to undo her handcuffs, he soon saw it was on Enrico's person; she had to get near him to get it off! Looking at the still struggling Piranha's she collected one on the end of her foot and powered it through the air to reach Enrico's body. The Piranha bit down hard into Enrico's gluteus and he winced in pain as he fell backwards on the fish. This caused him to roll around to get the fish off him. Silver let go of Crits from the wall to help his fallen comrade – by attacking Carmelita. He charged in, the mechanical bulk of him like an elephant as it went into Carmelita. She dodged as well she could, but he caught her by the arm, his mechanical grip tight and secure. Spinning her around to get a proper hold, Silver realised the strength that would maybe be his downfall – Carmelita threw two fast and highly aggressive punches at Silver's heavy metal cowl, which whilst not hurting show that Carmelita was free of the chain on the handcuffs! The broken chain, leaving the cuffs on, provided an extra sense of glee for her as these were now extra weapons!

Crits, picking up the stick, went to challenge Enrico's blade "Carmelita: me and you, we're leaving this together. Back with me to the door, and you Enrico are helping us off this thing"

"I'm sorry Crits but I can't. I can't leave them to commit an unstoppable war on the world"

Diving aside across the table – from right to left of the big conference plank of wood – Carmelita went over the side and came back up with her shock pistol. Pointed at Silver, she opened fire while Crits continued to shy away from nearly attacking Enrico Conte. The savage Iguana was waving the knife well, and then struck out. A well-timed curve from Crits caused the strike to dodge off and then Crits was quick to follow up with it, hitting Enrico over the head with the beam of wood. Enrico stood back up, the bruise on his head quickly out of his head…like the embarrassing bite-mark on his rear. Meanwhile, Carmelita had engaged Silver in numerous shoot-outs/dodging. He was an easy target to hit, but he only seemed to be 'tickled' by the plasma bursts. The table separating the pair made it harder for Silver to do too much with this. Crits continued to fight as best he could, but it seemed to all go in vain as Enrico aggressively and violently launched out with his foot straight at Crits' shin, sounding a loud crunch noise. Crits fell in fell. Carmelita, lost in the moment, didn't see Silver swing the huge conference table out of the way without even lifting it off the floor. However, Carmelita's fists were striking out. Not only that, but she was finding ways to strike the handcuffs against the shell of Silver, and whilst he made no noise to display the pain, he did start slowly crumbling down from the hits that battered his cowl repeatedly. Crits, struggling with the broken leg, failed to resist Enrico as he took the Cheetah by the throat and started pulling him towards the door.

"Silver!" He called "Change of plan! Finish off with this meddler any way you can. I'll be at the docks with two speedboats ready to go! We'll go Vigo – I have some extra people I think we could use in mind…" Crits struggled harder to turn and run, as he was dragged away like the poor victim he was…

Carmelita approached Silver once more, fists upheld. He just started circling her.

"Before I finish…you, tell me this. You think that because of the fact _Mano del Diablo_ killed your family those years ago, that if we took over the world that be a bad thing"

"Yes! What else would it be tin-can?"

"It would be easier for everyone. Crime would stop COMPLETELY because we won't allow it! The world's one leader would bring it…"

"…Into madness because he's insane?" Carmelita flippantly interrupted. Silver lashed out, far faster than before – maybe his mechanic joints were loosening out.

"First of all he's not crazy – you're aunt tested him. Remember…" His metal voice purred "And further more…nothing ecological, economical or anything else would change – except management. One man in charge of everything: no conflict, no self-doubt or doubt in general. This is for the good of the world"

"That sounds like a dictator's idea"

"Maybe it is…I'm the one who said it and supports it…eh?"

Carmelita pointed her pistol out at him, full arm's length from him as he closed in on her. Firing the gun at point blank range into his face seemed to hurt him more than before, as he outright fell to knees screaming. Down on the floor, Carmelita placed the gun to his head, prodding it harshly.

"Where do the speedboats depart from?"

"North of the base…just out that window there…" He said pointed the window at the end of the conference table. She looked through it, and saw indeed, just at the dock, two boats were getting unlocked and their engines started. Looking down at Silver, she held the gun up like a baton and using the robust construction of it, used it to whack the Silver encased Fox around the face. Turning over the shy away from the attack, Silver used the space to turn himself over and get back to his feet like the perfectly design machine he made out to be. Marching back on her, she fired another shot however it missed. Silver had her now…his hands on her arms, he swung her over the conference table like a hammer and smashing her well built frame over it. It broke into two uneven pieces; Carmelita winced at the force of being swung like a doll over a solid wooden surface so hard for it to literally break from being hit. She shot at Silver once and he again was on his knee, but still with use of his arms. Swinging out, bits of sharp metal flew out of his finger tips – like shrapnel from a blast that hadn't been heard. Three waves of these struck out in every direction, but the alert and agile Carmelita hit the floor as the metal flew overhead. Gun out pointed, she fired many shots at impacted on the hulking load of metal. He was violently convoluting from the blasts. Soon he was nearing the floor, Carmelita's face opened into happiness. Silver knew that he was nearly defeated, but for the sake of Enrico, he wouldn't let that happen…

Carmelita issued a kick into Silver's groin, causing him to wince before she was issuing many punches to his cowl with the handcuffs for extra damage. As he lay on the floor, out of breath, Carmelita walked to the coms link at the door end of the room, where camera readouts of guards working on the battleship and running around the complex to the room they in and to the dock with the speedboats were becoming displayed "Enrico – I've defeated your puppet!" "Three out of four for one person is almost a record! Give me Crits, and give yourself up, and we can work out a deal!"

Silver was back upstanding "Defeat? I'll let you know when you've defeated me – NOW IS NOT THEN! And you wanna get to Enrico the fast way. Let me help you…"

PUNCH!

PUNCH!

KICK!

KICK!

ZAPP!

The battering exchanged sides, and Silver then took Carmelita by the wrist! Spinning her around like a dancer over his knee in a foxtrot manner, he snatched her in his other hand and held her full pressed over his head. The Fox struggled against the armoured man, but he took her strong and firm to resist. Heading back to the coms machine, he pressed the button with his foot.

"Enrico. I'm fine, the girl is dead and I'll be with you at the dock in five minutes…then we can wreck that country Spain, then the world!"

He released the button.

"Hey Fox, don't be so glum…"

"I'll make you glum first tin man!"

"Hey, tell me that from the other side of the window…"

"…Window?"

Taking a step back, he braced his arms and through the girl the full length of the room, she screamed as she hurtled towards the huge window at the end of the room. Like a clap of thunder, she smashed into it, violently cutting up and battering her body underneath her leather clothing. Falling through the window, she looked down as she hurtled what would be 90ft to the ground…thinking fast, she looked down, crouching in, looking for a way for survive this fall…looking sideward, she saw the outline of a drainpipe…shooting at it, it loosened far enough from the wall to be able to get a grip of it and stop her fall. Sliding down it, she ran like a strong breeze. She saw Silver's head looking over the drop from the high-up complex. He didn't see her, and so his 'victorious' cackle filled the air outside. Disappearing out of view, he and Carmelita their ways down to the dock; Carmelita made her way over the rooftops surrounding the complex, and Silver made his way on ground towards the North Water facing side of the island.

Silver triumphantly marched towards Enrico and the tied up Crits, who eyes were almost awash with loss. Despite his being tied up by his hands and legs, he felt his heart surge forth in anger. Enrico, far removed from his normal mature and calculated demeanour atypical with a man of his age, he saw the triumphant Silver walk towards their boat, and without hesitation, was wide-eyed and extravagantly joyous at this: punching the air the victory, and cackling a loud hideous laugh that to him was a sweet noise, but to us was is ugly as a death rattle. He took Crits by his short hair, and hauled him to the floor of the boat, his roots tugged out and in his hand.

"Look at it! My army; boats and planes and soldiers tried and tested by this great general! I'll tell you what though…we may have found an extra new recruit for the grand scheme. Him…and his would've been parents-in-law! Yes…you're girlfriend was incredible Crits; I'd almost say she was the best thing Spain could offer. Ah well, she's dead now" He stood up, shoulders back and head upright "Right! Two little friends of ours in Vigo – good old Pinky and Tusks – are gonna bring Suzanna Fox and her husband to the docks and we'll take them back here then launch the attack! This is a quick extraction job, no-one arousing attention or nothi…"

He was cut off by the impacting of shock pistol bullets on the guards in the second boat. Looking up in the air, Enrico could see the wild gunslinger shooting the pistol like an extension of her anger toward him.

"How much effort do I have to make to kill one stinking Spaniard Fox?!"

She landed on the floor, taking aim towards Enrico in the boat with Crits tied up by his hands and feet. Walking towards Enrico's boat, she had her pistol pointed. Immediately, he snatched Crits up from the floor and held him like a shield. She halted her advance, looking to Crits' face for his comfort.

"Silver, get to the boat and then we'll get to Vigo. Such fun Carmelita!"

Silver broke into his run, making it to the boat and hitting the speed switch right next to the steering wheel forward slowly to avoid drag in the water. Without a second thought Carmelita joined the second boat. She hurriedly felt around the panel.

One button doing one thing – operate the screen wipers.

Another to do another – turned on the lights.

"Come on, I'm in a rush! Why's all these buttons here when I'm in a rush!"

One button finally was the result she needed – the roar of the engine! Pushing the power lever into the full position too quickly and causing a huge amount of spray. Looking behind, Enrico could hear her screams of rage "6 years and I'm hindered by a button and a lever!" before she was free of the dock – and in pursuit of Enrico and Silver on their journey to Vigo…


	9. Carmelita Faces Enrico and Silver pt2

_**Sly Cooper: Vida La Carmelita**_

**Vigo, Spain, 3rd April 1999**

Suzanna had begun pacing in the front room of her sterile house. The only red that could or would ever be seen around the house was in her eyes. Aaron twitched in his seat; the nervous Aardvark worrying hard about his missing step-niece and her vengeful vendetta: true, his wife too had a vendetta upon Enrico Conte, but it was never a one-man war on the Devil himself – it was more of an organised crusade…and then he's worries intensified as Suzanna Fox picked up the phone and hit the number 9 in a three-beat-rhythm.

"Hey Police. Can I talk to Captain Barkley?"

"Suzanna, what are you doing?" Aaron rose from his seat, fully aware of what was about to happen – Suzanna in her moment of disregard for her niece and family she was going to report Carmelita to police! "Diego and Santana would be rolling in they view you were going to do this! There are other ways to get out of this!"

"I didn't want to. But she chose to take them on herself and she'll get herself killed – we both know it. Then what? Enrico will be completely victorious and then Diego and Santana will be rolling even harder. You know it, you're just too much of a woozy to tell yourself it" A voice came from the other end of the line. It was Barkley – the infamous Interpol commander who was heading up on the _Mano del Diablo_ manhunt since Enrico Conte first came to Spain aged 14 those years ago.

"Suzanna? What is it?"

"It's Enrico Conte. My niece has got involved with him and knows where he is…what's he's currently doing as well!"

"Wha…where is she? We could use her real bad for this"

"She…she went off"

"A Vigilante? Please say she wasn't the one who did Voyra over…or Jame Jones. If we can make a deal with her then maybe…"

A knock came on the door, and the depressed and hurt Aaron went to answer it.

"Barkley, I don't want to 'deal' with her but she should be dealt with once this is done. No exceptions, once we have her statement I want her in ja…"

BANG!

BANG!

Aaron and Suzanna collapsed unconscious to the floor, over them were the two faces they'd least have expected to see…Tusks and Pinky, the two extra guests of Carmelita's childhood they had seen on nowhere near as frequent a basis as Crits…and the amount that had aged since then. The pair of them had gone from bulked and muscular polite looking guys to two bearded and bristling men whose arms were wrinkled with fat and covered with knife cuts and bullet wounds. Whatever had become of them after Carmelita left their lives could only be a guess, but right now they were a pair of thugs for hire. Tusks took Suzanna under her body and tried to pick her up. His heavy breathing would make someone think that she was as overweight as they were, when the exact opposite was the case.

"Damn this woman needs to lose some pounds!" Tusks turned to Pinky "Remember when we were young, then she was a sort. More than Carmelita was that's for sure"

"Hey man, she still got it. We just gotta get us some muscle back on us. I'll give you a hand and we'll pop them in the van and take them to the dock for Enrico, we get our ciggies then we're off"

Barkley was listening to this all on the phone that had fallen to the floor but was still on, relaying this information to Interpol…

_**Mano del Diablo**_** HQ to Vigo, 3rd April 1999**

The boats were jetting across the water. Each boat was equipped with a thick metal hull exterior that would withstand impacting on any other boat without taking any damage, the front windscreen was bomb-proof glass, and both engines on the back of the boat were maximizing speeds of equivocal to a fast car on the open roads. Both Enrico and Carmelita were aware of this fact and the boats were breaking through the water at lightning speeds. Silver picked up Crits from the boats floor, lifting him up like a heavy gym-bag of stuff, and held him over the side of the boat.

"Enrico, if we drop him we could cut down the time to Vigo and put her off the chase!"

"No…I have a better idea for him…plus she has just started shooting at us!" He yelled as a shock pistol bullet flew overhead. Despite the roaring engines and spiting water, he could also just make out the angry war cry of Carmelita over the ocean – "You touch him like that again Conte, and I'll rip your heart out with that sickening white T-Shirt!" – as they continued on their speeding voyage to Vigo, a full 10 seconds ahead of Carmelita pursuing them in the same model vehicle. In her sights, Carmelita could see the boat continuing momentum, but she had an idea to slow the boat down to actually allow her to catch up. The two sets of water behind the boat signalled out the points of an engine, positioned just to the rear of the boat before the propeller joined at the end of the boat. Looking straight ahead, she could see a place to shoot…moving clear of the front boats stream of spitting water, she edged a bit further forwards in her chase of the boat. Pointing out her gun at an estimated place as to where the engine was positioned in the boat…looking closely…BANG! The boat rocketed from side-to-side from the impact. The hull had protected the body from taking any damage, but a cry from one of the guards confirmed Carmelita's true and perfect aim:

"Enrico…boss, I mean…we've lost an engine, I can redirect the power from the remaining engine to both propellers, but we'll only be at 35% capacity speeds!"

"I've got that, thanks" Enrico signalled to the Tiger at the controls "Is the grappling hook on the chain down there…because it's time to take this Fox out of commission for good!"

Enrico searched with his hands on the boat's underside, and pulled out a canon/winch like hook from below. Looking straight ahead he could see the shores of Vigo, Spain forever nearing…at the rate they're moving, it could be less than an half an hour before they arrive on the shores. Carmelita, now in the much faster boat, drove forward and in front of _Mano del Diablo's_ boat to slow it further. Looking back at the boat, she held her gun out to them.

"Here are your choices savage: I shoot you both down in that boat and sink it so no-one will ever find your bodies – a great end to your story – or you can handcuff yourselves to the back of the boat and I drive you back to Vigo where you can go to prison for your crimes. Never be released or even have a window. Either way, your stories will fade away…"

"Either one you do will put you away as well!" Enrico readied the winch "Still going for revenge? What family is left may not appreciate that"

"My problem _Pinto_, not yours!"

The winch fired ahead and attached itself to the rear of her boat. Carmelita jumped back as the hook just missed her face. The hook tightened against the back of the boat, creating a taught chain like a tightrope between her boat and the boat she was now pulling fast to Vigo. Silver tied the winch on tightly to their own boat, so that hook was certain to not loose a hold on her boat. Enrico, stepping forward onto the chain, seemed to be walking across it with almost a nonchalant ease, knife brandished, teeth clenched in a devilish grin.

"This however Carmelita Montoya Fox…IS YOUR PROBLEM NOW!" He leaped the rest of the length of the chain till now he was on her boat…ready to rumble…

**Vigo, Spain, 4th April 1999**

Suzanna woke up just before Aaron did too, in the crumbling decrepit rotting building in the dock. The two long lost friends of their niece stood over them, not with weapons but instead fat and flabby arms and bellies from years of fast food and television programmes that were addictive as the other stuff they got for kicks. Looking up, she saw them…and whilst it took a second longer than it may have done a few years ago, she knew both of their names.

"Pinky? Tusks? What is this – some unfunny joke that's just too late for April Fools? Why are we tied up at the docks?"

"Sorry Miss Fox, guy we have a deal wishes to have a meeting with you. We get some rocks for your being here" Tusks said "For what it's worth if it was up to us, we'd have said 'get someone else to do it', or 'we ain't gonna be your slaves chum' but we need some rocks so yeah"

"A lil' kiss and maybe we could let you go and say you escaped" Pinky interjected

"To that Pinky, I say bite me! Pair of self-destructive narcissists serving some meathead punk…"

Pinky and Tusks leaned over her

"The guy is Enrico Benjamin Conte"

"…come again?"

Aaron leaned in "You keep that man away from my wife! After everything Carmelita did for you boys as kids you'll give us to him…let her go, let me stay"

"Sorry Aaron. Nothing you can say would make us spare you both"

"As I said" Suzanna began "BITE ME! Fat wet pair of clueless spineless curds – both of you!"

Looking out the window, both Tusks and Pinky could see two boats incoming: one in-front of the other "Well I'll tell you who isn't a brainless spineless curd. Enrico Conte. He's nearly here and we can't wait to see what'll happen when he gets here!"

_**Mano del Diablo**_** HQ to Vigo, 4th April 1999**

Enrico's forearm swung in at Carmelita's throat. He could see the Vigo port, nearing over Carmelita's shoulder. His forearm made a great and vile contact with her throat, instantly taking her the floor and leaving her stunned and dazed. As Enrico came over her, the serrated knife held intently, she pulled her trigger on the shock pistol. Out burst the plasma pellet, at Enrico's foot. However, the swift moving Iguana avoided it, taking a few lightning steps back from Carmelita. This allowed Carmelita to launch back to her feet with one swift Ninjakick that uprighted her. Both now back standing again, he slashed out with the knife low down aiming for her stomach. Dodging back, she then struck out with her fist using the shock pistol for added weight to injure with and unlike every attempt she'd made at Mexico City, Enrico's face was fully struck with the full weight of the pistol and her strength. Enrico looked back to her, the left side of his face red with the force of the impact leaving a long bruise on his face. Looking up at Carmelita, he brandished the knife again.  
"_Bueno, Bueno_ Carmelita!" he snarled through bloodied teeth "I think you're really getting the hang of this gunslinger act"

He struck back at her but again missing, her feet responded by kicking out with a metronomic regularity at him. His successful dodges were few, but the force from these kicks was not enough to cause him to submit. The fact they were impacting however was putting fear into Silver's heart as he watched on, horrified under his metal cowl whereas Crits looked on with hope in his eyes. Enrico slung his knife at Carmelita's face, hoping to put out her eyes, and as he struck, she raised the hard metal pistol to block and both weapons interlocked like a great broadsword battle between two (nearly) equal opponents.

"Yes Enrico: I'm getting the hang of all this" She smiled "Gunslinger though…more like a sheriff"

"Where's your hat…Deputy Fox?" Enrico asked as he pushed against the guns with all his strength…but nothing was budging.

"ENRICO!" Both the Tiger guards called in Unison "We're in the Vigo port…and we're about to hit that dock!" Both Enrico and Carmelita let their grip on each other quit to turn behind them; the facts were right, as they had both entered the port of Vigo but the dock building, crumbling and broken, was nearing them at the speed of a bullet. Realising this, Carmelita turned back on Enrico, now with the room to move her gun and accurately aim for him, pointed the gun at him and opened fire. However, with even faster speed than she was pulling the trigger Enrico was dodging the bullets and making it closer to her…WHACK! Just as he reached her, both of them kicked out their legs viciously and with clinical purpose to harm one another and hit each other hard like two trucks driving fast in opposite directions to one another. The force of that sent both fighters recoiling backwards and sending both of them to the floor, but even when down the bullets kept coming from Carmelita's gun at Enrico, but they were still missing. Silver, sensing his need to join the battle, took the winch and started turning the handle, effortlessly pulling the front running boat closer to them with the ease most people would pick up a heavy bag until both of the boats were nearly touching. By this time, Enrico had once again made it to nearly over Carmelita; knife raised for definite intent, he leapt the rest of the distance, pulling her to the floor of the both by her arms. On top of her he snarled.

"Well Carmelita…you're a handful I'll give you that. However, I'll also give you this knife…in the heart!"

Without thinking, Carmelita winced as she kicked up at his stomach, and the second time at his shins. Enrico gasped for breath as he moved back. The pair were now both upstanding, but the boat soon rocked slightly as Silver stepped over into the boat. Carmelita, suddenly filled with fear, pointed the gun at Silver – the huge metal brutish brawler – and she fired her gun at his face like before…but Silver didn't react this time. A metal laugh came from his speaker. He charged forwards, and delivered one solid punch to Carmelita's temple – the punch expertly coming from the side of the fist to make the impact equivalent to nothing that Carmelita or Enrico could ever have felt before. She fell to the floor straight unconscious. Enrico started laughing like a madman, turning to Silver he kept laughing.

"I would high-five you if that is anything to go by I think I may lose it!"

"I wouldn't that to _Mano del Diablo_'s great leader" He simply said.

"Okay" Enrico began "Let's get her in that boat and we'll leave it to crash. Get him and the two Tiger guards into this boat!"

Silver took the bound Crits by his ties and lifted him into the boat.

"Carmelita!" He screamed "I'll…I'll…" he began, until Silver slammed him onto the floor. Once everyone was on board, Enrico, holding the knife strong and firm, slammed it down on the chain, shattering it and leaving the unconscious Carmelita in the boat behind them.

Opening her eyes, she had enough time to hold her head in the spot where Silver had hit her. The pain quickly left however after the sight of the incoming dock sent adrenaline straight to her head. Without thinking about the fact that she was hurtling through the water at full speed towards a Pier right off to the side of the dock, she grabbed her gun, and launched herself up into the air flying up high over the Pier that fell completely apart once it was hit by the boat. Landing on the roof of the nearby the Pier, she stood atop watching the whole town come running out of their houses to look upon the destruction in the docks. Carmelita adverted her gaze from the dock she destroyed and instead bought her attention and brain to the fact that she had to get to her Guardian's house for safety – both hers and theirs.

**Vigo, Spain, 4th April 1999**

Carmelita ran into the house that she'd spent 6 years living in, but it didn't look like the clinical dry place she was used to: instead it looked a room that gets destroyed in a typical mindless blockbuster film. Looking around the house in a hurried panic she ran upstairs to check the entire upper floor – especially hers for that was the room that contained all of the material regarding Enrico's plans and her connection to him. She was relieved to find that it was all intact and hadn't been tampered with at all. The fact that downstairs had shown a struggle was worrying for her. What Enrico had done with Aaron and Suzanna she didn't know but she knew that since they were missing from the house, and Enrico was certainly in Vigo, it meant he had them to his wishes. Police sirens wailed outside, looking around the docks and the broken pier. The loud bellowing noise of the sirens made it hard for her to think. Suddenly, the house phone upstairs went off like a piercing warning bell. Hurrying upstairs, she ran to pick it up. She grabbed it from the wall and pulled it to her ear with so much vigour that the phone holder nearly fell from the wall.

"Hello?" She answered.

"DAMMIT!" Came the voice she instantly recognised as Enrico – the Mexican part of this accent starting to take hold, but the strong enunciation of the syllables associated with an English upbringing made it obvious that it was him "You've survived being riddled with bullets, falling 90ft out of a window, being battered to within an inch of your life AND surviving a boat crashing into a pier at 80mph! If I didn't know that you were just a normal person from a normal household, I'd almost say you were some genetic abnormally. Too bad for your Uncle, Aunt and boytoy right here…" He said the word 'Aunt' with particular revilement, most likely due to their past together.

"You're in Spain Enrico! That's the single stupidest thing you could've done! Police are looking at the dock right now when that boat crashed. You can't leave this place now…they'll catch you…"

"Maybe. However, I have three hostages with which to entertain myself with till then…"

"NO!" She cried out.

"OK…here's the deal. I will let one of them go without a fuss, without a beating, without a scar on their flesh. Which one would you absolutely wish to see again…?"

_**The Docks**_

Enrico, Silver and his Tiger guards, along with Pinky and Tusks, circled the three hostages tied to strongly built, well-made wooden chairs – indeed the only part of the old docks that was well maintained. Not much use, since it was bleak and now underused except for this. Enrico held the phone to his smiling face, his smile barely able to contain itself.

"Yes Carmelita. You say a name…and they go away scot-free. The other two with have a hell of a time…oh I can't for that. Me, Silver and my knife are ITCHING AWAY to get started here…"

"CRITS! SAVE CRITS!" Came her cry from the other end of the line "You made a promise that one would leave without being hurt or scratched: I want that one to be Crits!"

Looking at his prisoners, Enrico signalled to Crits with his finger. Aaron and Suzanna looked to each other with shocked disbelief. Silver picked up the chair with Crits tied to it and one-handed carried it out to the dock overlooking the water.

"You looking out the window right now Carmelita?" Enrico asked.

_**Carmelita's House**_

"Yes I can see…that is certainly Crits: untied him"

"In a second…" He snarled "I think Crits may have something to say to you. Hey, Crits – brave boy…you wanna speak to your lady?"

She watched from the Window as Enrico moved the phone from his ear to Crits', holding it there for him to speak. She could hear Crits get some words together.

"Carmelita…don't do what they tell you to…"

And then, the Carmelita's horror, unspeakable happened; Enrico took the phone back from Crits' ear, visibly cricked his neck from left to right, took a step back, and delivered a powerful kick to the chair, which tipped forward off the edge of the pier and over into the water with Crits strongly tied to it…never to resurface. Looking on in horror, Carmelita clutched her hand to her mouth and fell to her knees, her eyes flooding with sadness and pouring out dramatically.

_**The Docks**_

Enrico and Silver walked back into the docks, both walking with glee with their stride, but Aaron, Suzanna, Pinky and Tusks looking on horror at what just happen.

"Well to be fair Carmelita…did you really think I was going to let someone who had seen my operation just…leave…like a bad lodger in your house?"

"YOU SAID YOU'D SPARE HIM!" She cried "He meant everything to me!"

"Carmelita…" His voice had now gone quietly calm "You killed Jame – he meant as much to me as he meant to you. You killed him slowly and viciously, remorselessly and callously. So before you think that you have the right to lecture me on my right to take someone important to you from you…don't! And if you don't do what I next say I'll do the same to Aaron and Suzanna. Or will you just be weeping for your precious brave toyboy who only got what he got because of you getting him involved?" He could hear her tears fading away to be replaced by anger…secretly becoming scared, but like he was ever going to admit that "I'll take that as a yes then…you are in your house. I want you to go to the payphone off of _Dogsmutton Rd_. and place all of the things you have on me and _Mano del Diablo_ in it: the blueprints to the warship, the map of how to get to our base from here, Voyra's little tape of us 'having fun' with your family. I WANT ALL OF IT – EVERY LAST PART! Once you are at the booth, call the number 0666 1666. If you dillydally too long, or if I see a single Policeman from the Pier over there get even a little inking of what's going on…I will send your Aunt and Uncle out to greet them in pieces! You get that Princess?"

"I'll do it, but this won't be the end of it Enrico. I will find you, and I'll make you beg before you die!"

"Yes yes yes, of course" Enrico smiled "Time is ticking now…"

_**Carmelita's House**_

Carmelita held her pistol well. True as she had all of the items Enrico wanted right there in the room with her, it was doubtable that it would be as simple as ring a number and get her Aunt and Uncle back…she remembered what Suzanna had told her about Enrico's arrest those years ago…he rigged his phone to self-destruct and take everything with it. It was almost certain that he had rigged that phone booth to blow as well…Crits' last words were a good hint to this. That was twice now he'd saved her life, and she started to tear up again…if she did what Enrico had told her to, that would be dishonouring his brave move. She had to get to the dock…but how? The police were still watching the pier, and Enrico was definitely cunning to test all of this to a success as he had previously done with all of his crime ventures. Looking from her window, she could see the Police, led by a heavily moustachioed Badger with a heavy huff of smoke emulating from his Cigar-smoking lungs, gathered at the dock. No way existed that she could get near the dock, especially whilst armed with her huge shock pistol, without drawing attention to that mass of cops. In her head, she was improvising the plan as she got nearer…

_**The Docks**_

Enrico was walking in circles around the married pair of Fox's in the middle of the dock underneath the rotted building.

"So Silver…tell me how this sounds: we have all of our captives to become the part of our great and glorious nation – the Devil's Eden – but how about we add an extra pair in there to become the Adam and Eve of this place?"

"Sounds like a part perfect for little Miss Perfect and Mr Not-Quite-Right, I agree" Silver slurred.

"YES! You remember when we were having our interviews Suzanna? And you kept punching me over and over and over for something I did I guess?"

"Yes" Suzanna unsteadily answered. She screamed in agony as Enrico's fist forced out at her beautiful face, and severely damaging the aesthetic quality of it to appreciate. Aaron pulled forward on his chair, but his weak body quickly was put back by the ropes.

"You have no idea how long I've waited for that!"

"You monster!" Aaron cried "Whatever you want to do to her, do to me instead – I'm a better subject for your ways"

Enrico looked up at Aaron and walked towards him. Pinky and Tusks from afar kept silent and still, much like they had done when they watched one of their treasured childhood friends get drowned right before their eyes. Aaron gasped as Enrico took his throat in his hand, and applying a tiny bit of pressure each time as he watched Aaron gasped and his eyes turn red. Enrico smiled as the pressure kept on coming…

BANG!

The sound of the explosion reverberated through the town. Enrico loosened his grip on the throat of the horrified Aardvark, looking into his angry face with joyous eyes.

"Well well. Looks like your niece was a bit short on the final straight! Now, once the Police have cleared away from the dock, you and me are going to become the very bestest of friends!" The Iguana's hideous proposition caused Suzanna to shudder. Silver turned his glance to Pinky and Tusks and they too returned it, only there's was more terrified than his was…Enrico too turned on them.

"Now for the matter of what to pay you guys. You wanted three rocks, but I think since you alerted the Police – nonetheless Interpol – I think two will do"

"Enrico seriously, a deal was a deal…"

"AND THE DEAL WAS BOTCHED!" His face was furiously aggressive, and the Warthog recoiled in pure fear from the pure evil expression on the Iguana's face. Both of them noticed Silver too, in his huge mechanised form with pipes and accessories attached to him designed to be the biggest challenge a man could face, stood tall and imposing. The machine walked forward towards the pair, soon speaking at the pair as well "What Enrico Conte wants, Enrico Conte gets. A pair of drunk up flabby Joes don't have a say in this"

"I can't believe you sold us out for some rocks!" Suzanna yelled in the background "She was your best friend and now she's dead because you just wanted some rocks! Enrico, why don't you just kill them?"

"Oh Suzanna we think alike; if these boys want to leave with more than I'm offering, they'll be leaving with one less finger on their hands! Two rocks no more!" His face was serious "Or does my knife have to join this negotiation?"

"Enrico…" One of the Tiger's began.

"What is it – I'm busy. Cut me off again and I'll cut you up"

"The Police…they're coming back this way to the docks!"

Enrico and Silver looked on horrified at the army of Police coming this way. The pair called out the two Tiger guards to attend the front of the dock. The Police kept on approaching the decrepit building, making their way to join the half that was already left behind. The two guards on the dock stood ever vigilant to anything that may be coming. No signs of anything.

"So then, two rocks and no more: agreed or do me and Silver have to spell it out to you with this knife?"

"N-N-No, it's fine" Pinky and Tusks both stuttered. Enrico reached into his back pocket and bought out two bags, each containing a single glowing glittering rock that shot off a golden light and held a smell like petrol "We'll make the most of these"

"Good boys. Silver, get old Adam and Eve over there in the boat. Once the Police have chased us all away, Pinky and Tusks can just walk off into town to get their rocks off. Deal done…and then we take Spain without that little runt of a Fox to stop us!" Silver took the two chairs in one hand each. Suzanna and Aaron looked to each other in horrified panic as they were fully realising of what was destined for them. Suzanna was going to forever be at the mercy of the man she despised more than anything in the world.

"CRITS RUNWELL!" The voice that was instantly known as Carmelita's came through the air, as she came flying down feet-first onto those two 'vigilant' Tiger guards from atop the docks roof. The guards were instantly gone. Enrico saw her, and without speaking came running full on at her, his teeth looking as vicious as his knife, his eyes like red lights of violence. As he came running along at her, Carmelita stood tensed in wait…BANG! She kicked out her leg as he came to her. The force of the kick was so great that it sent the gangland leader flying backwards, straight into Silver who dropped the two chairs down to the ground. Enrico rose up from the strike, but Carmelita's fist hit him once more and he dropped down straight onto Silver, seemingly unconscious. Silver too tried to bring himself up, but Carmelita, using her pistol, shot at his cowl until he too collapsed. Suzanna had a look of anger to see her face here in this way, Aaron looked beyond happy to see her back in his view, but Pinky and Tusks looked truly terrified of the gun-toting Fox who used to be their friend so many years ago. She looked up at them in total horror.

"Pinky? Tusks? What is this – have you been working with them all this time, to build the 'Devil's Eden', or was this for something more pathetic than even that?"

"I'm sorry Carmelita – he had ties to our parents some years ago, so we kind of ending in his pocket after they died. We never had a choice! We swear!" Tusks weepily began

"Yes, we swear" Confirmed Pinky

"I don't wish to hear anything extra from you. I have extra business to take care of for my Aunt and Uncle. You two are going to leave this dock out those doors right now with your rocks, and confirm what's happened here, or this pistol here will give you a different offer to make"

"If we leave now we'll be put in prison!"

"If you stay stood there I'll shoot you like the dogs you've turned into! Now go!"

Pinky and Tusks turned and scarpered out the front door into the mass of uniformed men and women waiting for the main criminals in the room, but choosing to settle for anything they could find here. Looking down, Carmelita took Enrico's knife and took it to the rope holding Aaron and Suzanna were they were.

"Look what they've done to us! Suzanna angrily yelled "Messed up my face, our house, your brain"

"I'm sorry Aunt, I didn't want to mix you up in this. Let's get you two out of here, then we can hand these two to the authorities" Carmelita expressed.

"You now want to give them to the authorities?" Enquired Aaron, now free from the ropes "I think we may have made a law-abiding citizen of you yet" To which Carmelita smiled. The three then walked towards the door, intending to leave Enrico and Silver to the Police.

"I don't think so…Princess!" Enrico yelled as he charged at Carmelita. She turned on him, holding her gun pointed at him, but he still overpowered her defence and slammed her against the wall with such force that the whole building rocked and shook violently. His hands were around her neck, squeezing hard as her eyes turned steadily redder the more pressure was applied. Searching the floor, Aaron found a piece of wood around the floor, picking it up and like a baseball bat, swung the thing over Enrico's head with enough force to snap the thing clean in two.

"You back away from my wife and my niece, or I'll hit you again!" His yell however was a nervous one. Enrico, hurt by the hit, changed his view from attacking Carmelita to him. Enrico didn't seem to look like he was to say anything, instead he just launched at him, pinning the Aardvark to the floor, and taking his hands around his throat simply twisted…breaking Aaron's neck with a violent repulsive crunching noise. Suzanna cried out in horror, as Enrico and Silver – now back standing up again – looked at the two with decisive intention to kill. Silver came running at Suzanna, who sheltered herself away from the running mass of mechanical strength with her hands. As he came near though, she dived away across the floor to make space for her to grab a piece of wood off the floor to use as a weapon. Silver turned to chase her, but Carmelita kicked out at the back of his head, whilst also aiming at Enrico was her gun. However, this multi-tasking was causing more and more damage to the damaged dock building surrounding them, as hole kept appearing in the walls…

_**Outside the Docks**_

Barkley stood with a cigar in his left hand and a megaphone in the right. Pinky and Tusks sat in the back of a Police Car looking depressed and disheartened with their fate.

"Listen up! Enrico Conte we know you are in there! This is Detective Barkley, and if you don't surrender immediately we will rain down an ungodly fire upon you!"

The firing inside continued, and it was clear that no-one inside had heard him…

_**The Docks**_

Silver approached the beam wielding Suzanna with strong and powerful movements at her. She held the beam out at her with an uncertain intention, Silver cockily standing against her uncertainty with a weapon. Suddenly, he powered himself at her with his mechanical mass as a battering ram. As he powered ahead, Suzanna desperately dodged him by ducking to the left of him. Hitting the side of the dock, the building did nearly seem to be falling down. As he went past her however, Suzanna swung the wooden plank at the back of his legs – the pipework on Silver's metal shell did have a very intricate piping system. She hit at the pipes, and suddenly, Silver started screaming as he fell backwards, oil pouring from the disconnected pipes that almost certainly seemed to power his legs. Fallen backwards on the floor, Silver turned over and started to pull himself into the action with his arms; however he was too slow to be of a threat to Carmelita as she fought Enrico.

Carmelita was now equally matching Enrico in her battle, unlike any point on the boat or back at the HQ of _Mano del Diablo_. Enrico, was pushing back against her with his knife in hand, but one slick and swift move, she knocked his weight out from under him when he kicked his shin. Falling down, Enrico landed hard on an up-turned nail protruding from the floor. As Enrico landed, the nail went straight into his stomach, immediately reddening his white shirt with his blood. Still, the Iguana seemed eager to keep him fighting however heavily exhausted. Carmelita held the gun to his tired face, but his other hand struck at her face, forcing her away. Suzanna soon joined this battle, as Silver was still failing to get back up and only managing to spread oil across the floor of the building.

"Come on now Enrico, let me here you beg!"

"NEVER! I stick to my promises…like I promised to my parents when I killed Joe Reese. See my point?"

Suzanna roared as she attacked Enrico out of nowhere with en extra wooden plank. The strike to his head caused Enrico to fall to the floor, backwards, his knife falling underneath him as he did…and now, Enrico knew he was destined to die as the knife went straight into his spine nice and deep in. He screamed a short scream, before turning to his side as he watched himself slowly bleed to death. Carmelita, placing her boot on the knife and placing her weight on it to provide the pressure for the wound. Enrico went from screaming to laughing suddenly.

"So this is it: Enrico Benjamin Conte is to be killed by a Princess and her Aunt in a rundown town dock all alone, with a knife in his back?"

"Yes Enrico" Carmelita said as she pressed onto the knife was her foot "Now beg me to save you and we'll give you to the Police…if you don't want to die this way, and I know you don't"

"NO PRINCESS NO! If I beg, I'll have lost the battle for your heart…no, in spite of this knife in my back and nail in my stomach, my plans fallen apart, I've still beaten you…and you know it!" He began maniacally laughing "You'll NEVER forget me! I'll haunt your sleeping dreams, and I'll stalk your waking minutes. I promise you that, runt" And then the life finally slipped from Enrico's eyes. Carmelita looked at his dead expression, and felt instantly empty: 6 years of wanting to see the man beg for forgiveness and mercy for what he did, not feel pride or glory for it. She was empty…and then angry. Looking around the room, she saw Silver, still struggling to get back up and fix his legs. He hadn't killed her family but he was still destined to control _Mano del Diablo_ now that Enrico was dead. Filled with fury, she marched into the struggling Silver, and held her gun out to his head.

"Well he didn't beg. Will you? WILL YOU?" She repeatedly battered his cowl with her gun "You followed in his beliefs and ideas, so you can be the one who weeps and begs on his behalf" Silver was still struggling underneath his cowl to say anything "I'll give you till the count of 5 to start begging. Any later and I'll shoot every part of you till it falls off1"…5…4…3…2…

"Carmelita, please, please stop this insanity!" Suzanna interrupted.

Carmelita looked up at her aunt with an angered look "Insanity – this is righteous!"

"You've got revenge on your brothers and your parents – all the ones who were there and now dead or brain dead in custody. This is too far beyond the law!"

"I know that! But listen, if we let him go, _Mano del Diablo_ will still be working as well as it was before. The organisation who wrecked many families across the world will continue to do this. I won't be satisfied till that happens…"

"Why do you care about your family?" Silver asked from the floor "Did you really think that Santiago was going to be the designer of the next Eiffel Tower? Or Santana be the business she always wanted to be. No chance, you're just crying over broken sticks!"

Carmelita looked in horror at what he just said "Don't talk about my family like that, now come on and beg…wait…" She suddenly shuddered "How'd you know their names – none of the gang who was there 6 years ago did…"

Silver, reaching ahead of him to his cowl, personally undid the screws and seals that kept the cowl attached during battle and operations. He pulled it from his head to reveal to Carmelita's horror what he looked like and who he was. His deep brown eyes that showed the intelligence and patience of a 50 year old – when he was now 49 – gave the clue away immediately. The stern and serious face made Carmelita's heart fall to pieces, and Suzanna's heart burst in shock, as the man who assisted Enrico Conte in everything he had done was that of Diego Fox Senior: Carmelita's father.

_**Outside the Docks**_

"Enrico Conte. Give up, and give us Aaron and Suzanna, or we'll be forced to come in and subdue you!" Barkley bellowed into the megaphone, still not too aware of what was going inside of the building.

_**Inside the Docks**_

Carmelita pointed the pistol once again at Diego as she looked on with watered up eyes and a shocked disbelief: one of the people she'd been attempting to avenge and had put herself and her future with Crits at risk for had been one of the masterminds behind everything, and that was a massive pill for her to take. Suzanna – his sister-in-law – was completely perplexed with horror and shock.

"B-b-b…Dad, please tell me this is a lie" Carmelita cried "Please tell me this isn't real"

"This isn't real" Diego cruelly and sarcastically interjected. His delivery was the exact opposite of the polite and fatherly tone that she hadn't heard for the last 6 years "Of course this is real! Did you really think it wasn't?"

"No…no! This isn't the way you were!"

"I changed dammit, get that through your small zit sized brain of yours…Princess!" Carmelita was coming close to tears, and Suzanna was also close to it "I changed the moment I came home and found all you shot up! I was never uncovered in my job at _Mano del Diablo_: I stayed unnoticed the whole time! Then one day we robbed a bank – as part of my work I had to get involved in some of the. All of our men bar me, two others and Enrico got killed because I didn't shoot down the security guy by the front door. He alerted the bank manager and we were gunned down in seconds by the Police who showed up. In order to balance everything out, a squad was dispatched to our house to kill my wife and children for my mistake. I didn't know this at the time, so I got home to find out the news: four dead in the attack, one critically hurt. So I returned to that base with a gun and I shot the place to hell and back! I shot it all up like no boys business! I got to Enrico, put the gun barrel up his nose, so he could smell the shell that blasts him to pieces. I watched him to see if he would beg or apologise for what he did. He never did – not so much as a simple explanation. He told me the story of Joe Reese, of his parents, of his ambition for the operation that would be his defining plan. Suddenly, I began to feel what he felt…and then broke both my legs while I was in the moment and distracted. While on my back, he gave me a deal: die now, or join his organisation in an increase role and involvement, so one day we could get our own wishes"

"What about me though – did the daughter in critical condition in Hospital ever bother you? Why did you make this your new life ahead of me…the Police? All the people you hurt or killed, even Crits!" Carmelita asked.

"Honestly…I enjoyed it!" Diego snarled.

Carmelita couldn't hold it in any longer, as her world had collapsed beneath her into dead nothingness. Her eyes flooded out uncontrollably, culminating in her looking up to the sky and screaming a scream that would deafen the dead in the sight of her aunt and her father, looking up and asking "Why…why me? Why us?" Looking down at Diego, and filled with disgust and anger, she raised her boot and stomped down hard on Diego's leg, letting out a horrible breaking noise.

"That is for your wife Santana!" She yelled, moving onto the next leg, breaking that too "And for Paolo!" Then his right arm "Diego Junior!" Finally his left arm "And that's for Santiago!" Before breaking down in tears once more, as the now in-agony Diego looked at her in desperation and horror "Well done for giving in Carmelita! I knew you could…AH!" Carmelita looked up to see Suzanna leaving the dock, and leaving them both in the oil covered hole that the Dock was. Looking around at the nothingness left, Carmelita too stood to leave. As she opened the door, she heard a voice.

"For family Princess? Hehehehe, or just revenge?" Diego smirked.

"No" Carmelita replied "This is for Justice" She said, at peace with what she had done in this act. Looking at the pool of oil, she aimed her pistol at it, and fired her pistol at it, igniting the oil and letting it follow itself back to the source, which was the now screaming Diego. The last words Carmelita heard him say were "Please, I beg! Give me the Police, not this please! I love you, just let me go!" The words fell hollow as she walked away as the flames engulfed the place…

_**Outside the Docks**_

Suzanna ran crying into the arms of Captain James Barkley, in-front of his army of police who wrapped his arms around her to console her crying.

"Hey Suzanna, what happen?"

"Aaron's dead!" She wailed "Enrico broke his neck. My niece is in there, so is Enrico's Lieutenant Silver. One or two Tiger guards who work for him…" She couldn't get anymore out. One of the policemen turned a flashlight to Carmelita walking from the Dock. Suzanna tried to leave Barkley's console to hit her, but the Captain held her back.

"You must be Carmelita" He asked "Is it true? Enrico Conte's dead in there?"

"YES, AND SO IS AARON!" Suzanna bellowed at her "You bought him into our lives, you got your Uncle and your little toyboy killed because you decided to make this your mission! You should've left it to the Police you iron witch! Then I'd still have my Aaron you…YOU…"

BANG!

The police behind exploded into flames, presumably from all of the attachments mixed into the Silver suit. Carmelita stood on, looking empty and complacent at the raging flames. The only comfort she presently had is that the flames signalled the destruction of _Mano del Diablo_ forever…the moment was so absorbent that she didn't hear the repeated accusations and cursed claims that Suzanna put across to her in the shadow of the burning flames.


	10. Carmelita's New Journey Begins

_**Sly Cooper: Vida La Carmelita**_

**Police HQ, Barcelona, Spain, 5th April 1999**

Carmelita sat in the interrogation cell on her own, like she had done for the previous day; shipped over to the Spanish capital (the city of her birth) it did bring back some flashes of the Gang's guns firing away, but those flashes no longer seemed to burn her like they did before. The events of what was going on had made worldwide news. Newspapers referred to her as 'The shining beacon of Justice' and the 'One Woman Army' in the ways that she took down the _Diablo_ single-handedly down. However, due to her Vigilante actions, the Police took a different take to her behaviour: she'd been there while they gathered evidence against her for her actions against the gang. This all begun 2 days ago, and she was starting to get bored, hungry and restless. In that time, she could just think of the horrors she'd seen: the corruption of her Father, the death of her future-Fiancé, her Uncle killed before her eyes, her Aunt branding her every horrible thing under the Sun. When put against her commanding position at the Registry office and her nice car, this didn't really compete. She'd been given a tall room, so she could at least practice jumping for an hour a day. Everything else just was the wanting of more. Suddenly, the door opened to Captain Barkley who entered the room. The big moustache had grown even better over the last 2 days. He sat opposite her, looking straight at her despaired face.

"I'm not gonna sugar coat this: we can't find anything that legally counts as solid proof as to what you did. The only decent lead we had – the punk Voyra – has a brain of Jelly can't tell us anything. We know you're guilty of murder and perverting the course of Justice, remember that! Proving it is impossible though" Despite the harsh words used, his expression was comically angry, as if it was almost exaggerated for this purpose. He continued "However, by trying to put you in prison we'd be making ourselves look stupid. How a 19 year old took down the biggest and baddest gang this side of the Wild West will remain a mystery to the people. One day someone will write a book about you entitled 'The Impossible Fox' or something stupid like that" Carmelita would've laughed with this joke if it weren't for the serious circumstance "Basically, the Police don't wish to lose face for failing to track and apprehend Enrico Benjamin Conte BEFORE a 19 year old, without whom we wouldn't have found the Blueprints to their plan, their base or the monster of a death ship they had at that base along with all those prisoners. We also don't want to put you in a jail filled with those whom some which include loyal supporters and 'fans' of Conte, cos that be like putting a bazooka in an acid tank. Here's our proposal for you. You listening there or do I have to write it on a piece of paper?"

"No Sir, I'm paying attention"

"Okie-Dokie. The deal is instead of sending to jail, we're going to induct you as a member of Interpol"

Carmelita looked up, in shocked disbelief "Really Captain? That's the plan?"

"Well, you are certainly physically able, and the work you do at the Registry Office shows you really like your paperwork, I might call it a romantic attachment. I think that it would do us some good. They're even letting you keep that pistol of yours. I personally don't approve of it, but put the Interpol logo on the side of it and I'm sure I'll be a bit more accepting of it…if at all"

Carmelita didn't even need to think "Honestly Captain, I always wanted to be the Police…like my father did before me"

"Just make a better job of it than he did OK" He stood up, patting the girl's face with loving affection as he left "I'll give you till the end of the day to decide where in the world you wish to be based and to tell me so we can give you a booked flight to the place. Oh, by the way, you have another visitor coming through soon"

Carmelita sat back…everything bad then drained from her mind and took to this golden prospect. After all, she was going to do something she was shown to be good at – busting criminals. It involved all of her skills in gymnastics and paperwork management, and certainly was an excellent option for a career ahead of her. Suddenly, her moment of wonder was broken when a punch came to her face so hard that it knocked her from her chair to the floor with a cut under her eye. As she gasped in pain from the strike, she looked up to see a pile of massive cardboard boxes packed full as they could get resting on the desk that was the only real piece of furniture that occupied the room other than the two chairs for her and Barkley. Next to the boxes, in a straight black-and-white suit with a fat tie and her hair in a ponytail, Dr. Suzanna Fox – her aunt stood over her. Carmelita's own blue hair had gone into disarray as she fell, but cared more about the bloody bruise under her eye, as Suzanna stood over her, enraged.

"You…a member of Interpol?" You…a sociopathic foolish little minx who hurts EVERYONE around her is made a member of Interpol?! Barkley's senile to put you in charge of something like this! You should've made this a matter of the Law long before you were made a part of it, you had the chance to give it to people who truly deserved to watch them suffer for everything against everyone they ever did. People who had the expertise to do it, unlike yourself!"

"What, like you Aunty?"

"Yes like me! You think you were the only Fox who had an eternal grudge with Enrico Conte, don't you? You forgot; he killed my sister and my three nephews for no reason at all, and turned my brother-in-law…" she started to sob at the thought of what Diego Sr. had become pretty much by Enrico's words, how what was to her, the most amazing man she'd ever known "And Aaron too, don't forget him: he cared for you like a daughter"

"Just like you should've done…" Carmelita interrupted, only to receive a kick from her aunt in retribution.

"Don't use my treatment of you in this discussion!"

"It's true though: you're only angry because you didn't see Enrico or any of the others brought to Justice through your own ties to the Police. You wanted to see them imprisoned. You were the one who killed Enrico not me, isn't that close enough for you?"

"No. It's not. I wanted more – I wanted to see his smirking damned face behind bars, growing old before dying inside. To think that my research into his behaviour would be the thing that people talk about and the thing he'd cry about…"

"Are you angry that it's me who's forever going to be remembered for taking them down?"

She felt another kick from her Aunt, this time to her stomach. Carmelita however had become as acquainted to getting hit over the few months that she barely noticed "I'll take that as a 'yes' then Aunty…"

"If I'd have been the one to take him down, Crits would still be alive, Aaron would still be here and the Dock would still be standing. And it would be ME in the History books and remembered fondly like I deserve for what I put up with, with…you and…EVERYTHING!" The jealousy in her voice was becoming increasingly clearer as she got more frustrated "In those boxes are all your personal artefacts, including some from the family home Santana and Diego owned together. Look through those boxes, take what you want along with the share of both Diego and Aaron's will, and leave Spain forever" She looked at Carmelita's horrified expression "You cost me SO much in House Repairs, burial costs for Aaron…and in the loss of Diego and Aaron both over: so…badge or no badge, if I ever, EVER see you on Spanish turf as long I'm alive, I will feed you your own tail Carmelita. Now pack your bags and never come back again!" And with that, she turned and left the room without even glancing at her only niece, never to look at her face again…

_CARMELITA P.O.V:_

"_**That was it, the end of my journey. I could never imagine any point before then what the end of the line would offer for me, but the end of this offered a Badge for Interpol. Dad wouldn't have cared anymore for this, but I could instantly see Diego Jr, Paolo and mostly Santiago getting teary and proud for this moment, with Mum too feeling the great feelings of joy as well. After the fall of Mano del Diablo filled the newspapers, with one paper the situation as 'David vs. Goliath' where Goliath really needed a shock pistol to hand, and another chronicling the life of Enrico Conte and ending suitably with 'Killed in the Vigo docks by angry young Fox Carmelita'. They also talked of the 'Good boys gone wrong' Pinky and Tusks, but that was an over-exaggeration, as they quickly went onto parole for good behaviour, went into rehab and are now free and working in a hotel somewhere in Madrid. Then the papers died down with the fuss, as did the part of my brain that remembered them for so long: Voyra, Winstone, Jame, Enrico – even 'Silver' – was no longer able to even recall their expressions or appearance anymore. But the fact remains that what they did will reply in my mind constantly. And man Suzanna was angry, and she definitely looked like she'd keep true to her threat: I wouldn't know, last I heard she died in her sleep a few years after that, on her own having not remarried possibly due to still being angry. I took her advice and packed my bags, along with the tens of thousands left for me and I took the time to look through the possessions in those old boxes while I pondered on where next to go to begin all this. Looking, I found something that if in public I'd have shrugged away but in private bought something of a tear to my eye: a drawing Santiago did…of the Eiffel Tower. Then I knew it: I would go to Paris to start my new career in the Police! Personally I'd always fancied the quiet life in France that I could spend when not having any more crooks to chase down. That evening, I made my way to the Barcelona Airport, on my own to fly away with Captain Barkley at the helm of the plane as we boarded, en route to my new home AND place of work for the next…however long. I didn't look back on Spain as I left it because in all honesty, everything there had all but disappeared. It was time to look forward to something new…"**_

**Up class Restaurant, Paris, France, 1st May 1999**

The evening that took place in the great city of Paris had been arranged for 'Constable Fox' by Captain Barkley to celebrate her passing her exams to be integrated into the organisation. Everyone stood around her dressed in their brilliant suits and designer dresses mixing among each other with complete ease, but Carmelita – the one who all this trouble had been for – stood off the side in her long purple ball gown overlooking the city that stood in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower to the side with a glass of wine in her hand on her own. Not much on her mind – the only thing about Spain that she missed now was her ORIGINAL car, not the new Red one she now had to replace it. The sights and people were long gone, and Crits and Aaron existed in simple memories. A guy or two had come over to converse, but none drew her attention. Suddenly she heard a voice.

"What a night for moonlighting Constable" Came was appeared to a (bad) Italian accent.

She turned up to see an old man Raccoon, with a light coloured fur on his face and tail, brown eyes that seemed to pull you right in and a walking stick that Carmelita immediately thought to describe as Grandiose; it was a huge gold walking stick with a curved handle at the top, or maybe it was the bottom. The stick part of it was a darker gold than the curved handle, and the whole thing looked like something descended from far back in history, and the man himself had a grand physical stance, like he was ready to just break out into a fight or some other type of performance with a physique of a wild animal…his face though, even though he was old and had a terrible beard, was enchanting to Carmelita "Shame on you to miss out on the fun at your own party"

"I'm not a very wild person"

"Come on, you know that's not quite right" The Raccoon smile as he raised his glass of wine to his lips, sipping it to savour the taste on both his eyes and tongue "You don't sound like a local, do you?"

"Neither you do…actually, where are you from?"

"Italy, born and raised in Rome"

"I thought you were Mexican for a second" She said, to cause the Raccoon "My name's Carmelita. What's yours old timer?"

"I'm Sylvester" He smiled a devilish smile that showed off his pearly whites in all their wonder.

"Sylvester whom?"

"Sylvester…Stallion" He murmured.

"Well, that is quite the name. What brings you out here on a night like this…"

"…to talk to a girl like you. If you don't mind" It was a brave thing to ask a girl like her, who'd already turned away many younger guys that evening "I'll guessing you don't mind…"

"No…No I don't" She said in the way that people who miss being spoken to civilly did.

"Smashing" The Raccoon gleamed "Good vintage this wine is isn't it…hey, if it isn't your boss!" He said, noting out the pinstripe suit-cladded Barkley, who noticed Carmelita and walked over, proud of his future prodigy for taking the place offered to her inside.

"Hey Ironsides, heard you passed with distinction last week! Welcome to the force Constable!" He cheered.

"Why thank you. By the way, your old guest here is quite the charmer"

"Bit old for you isn't he?"

Sylvester slanted his head "Old? I'm quite sprite for my age thank you!"

"…Where about are you from? That accent's hardly like anything I've ever heard before…"

"I'm Sylvester Stallion" He said, outstretching his hand. As Barkley went to shake it, Sylvester leaned forward, and the remaining wine spilled forward onto the suit jacket of the huge old Badger "Oh my oh my! I'm so sorry, hope that's not an expensive suit…"

"Actually Sir, it is"

"Here, let me take it" Sylvester said, holding the jacket outstretched to get the wine to keep from pouring across the jacket "Here; let me write my details down so you can send me the costs: that sounds fair?"

Barkley, looking mildly cross, silently nodded in his black pinstripe waistcoat and chalk-white shirt with a fat tie in what was very much wedding attire "I think you do owe it to me yes don't you Sly?"

The Raccoon looked up "Sly? Oh, no I go by Sylvester. Good honest name I'll have you find"

"Oh sorry to offend you, not sure if it got shortened often"

"Do you have a pen?"

Barkley, fumbling in his trouser pockets couldn't feel a pen in his trouser pockets, so he turned and hollered for one off another guest. That guest – a strapping young wolf with very heavily bulked Pecs – quickly rushed over, passing a quick and observant glance over Carmelita in the long dress…and his imagination ran riot. She knew this, and passed him a dismissing glance in return. She looked back at the old Raccoon's strangely arousing aura around his eyes – and of course his ridiculously toned body that had the same athletic qualities Crits had. And on the subject, his eyes had the same brave and selfless belief that he too did have. And such a good elegance about even his handwriting too…she smiled and blushed at her own thoughts. He handed the card to Barkley, along with the jacket.

"I'll get this to you over the week. I think I have to leave home to my family. Good meeting you and captain…" Sylvester turned to face Carmelita "And you too my lovely lady…thanks for keeping me entertained. No disrespect Captain, but this party wasn't my sort of thing"

"And wine all over my jacket isn't my thing either"

Sylvester winked at Barkley, who smiled in return. Turning to Carmelita, he kissed her on the hand, and bid his farewells. He walked off into the distance, while she looked at him and admired his strangely sturdy looking…

"Friend of yours?" Barkley interrupted her train of thought "Because I can't say I've seen him before. And he looks a bit old for your taste"

"I was being courteous to the old guy. You see his beard, that's a beard of a man who likes to chat to people"

"People who are courteous tend to not be completely blushed in the face" He matter-of-factly spoke. Reaching into his pockets, he looked very confused suddenly "Hang on, where's my cigar case? And my lighter? And a roll of cash from the deposit for this party?" He fumbled around his trousers and his jacket, not finding anything at all "Did I give you a cigar?"

"I don't smoke Captain" Carmelita said.

"Hang on…what's this?" He produced a folded up piece of paper, like the one Sylvester wrote his details down on. He unfolded it to reveal to his horror what it was…a blue Raccoon emblem with dark blue outline and lighter blue for the eyes and nose and the inside of the ears.

"Didn't you see him do anything while he held my jacket?"

"No, I didn't"

"Dammit! That man isn't a man…he's a Master Thief and he's just ripped me off! I'll give you the file on him in the morning!"

Down on the ground floor of the Hotel, the old man hobbled out on his walking stick, but he was past the front door of the building, the beard all the old features were thrown off like a bad stench to reveal a young looking and able bodied Racoon walking out with a golden Cigar case filled with Cuban Cigars of the highest quality and a role of cash. The cane was now no longer used for walking, but instead held like a well-intentioned weapon, and the Racoon holding it had placed a light blue cab on his head, and was wearing a blue overall jumper with golden cuffs and collar and he walked like a man with nothing to fear and with everything in the world to back him up. Walking around the corner, he jumped inside his teams van and the vehicle powered off into the dark night.

Inside the van, the planner Bentley – a Turtle – was immediately on him.

"Sly! You were delayed by two minutes. I thought something bad had happened to you!"

"Oh ye of little faith: I was just a bit distracted"

"You were in a room full of cops and in full view of the world's greatest hotel staff, so please forgive me for being a little jumpy"

"It's OK. This is the 'nth' time we've done this thing. Old Barkley will have to invest a bit more in his Protégé than in these nice Cigars"

"I heard about her…you were getting pretty involved with her…would it be fair of me to describe that girl as 'jailbait' by any chance?"

"No…but it would be worth it for sure"

Murray – a Hippo and the team's driver – turned from his seat "Sly, please don't go to jail – you know that I wouldn't be able to stand it if that happened"

"Which Murray is why you and Bentley don't have to worry about any of that as I will never get caught; no Cooper before me ever did and I don't intend to start. However…Carmelita Fox…" His mind wandered "Care for a smoke you guys?"

"Asthma" Bentley simply said

"Fair enough" Sly cheekily smiled.

_CARMELITA P.O.V:_

"_**I didn't meet him as 'Sly James Cooper' for a while after that, but that was indeed how I became acquainted with the tale of a thief everyone wanted to bring to Legal Justice, especially Barkley with all his lost Cigar boxes to the gang. I think I want to bring him to Justice too…but I get the feeling it's going to be complicated… **_


End file.
